The Lions Talking Magazine
The Lions Talking Magazine made audio recordings for listeners who could not easily read the printed local news, and the archive also contains interviews with island residents. Its recordings preserve accents and first-hand recollections of boatyards, dredging, bus services, teaching and the local shops. They are later reminiscences, not contemporaneous records of every event described.
Work on the waterfront
In a 1982 interview Harold Cutts discussed the boats and characters of Wyatt's yard, which he ran for many years. Douglas Stoker recalled dredging and the work of fishing families. An interview with Hardy Weaver in 1981 describes the many businesses run by Clifford Manning White, from timber and building work to brickmaking and estate agency.
Streets, buses and schools
Bill Clarry, born in 1883, recorded interviews in 1980 and 1981 recalling Yorick Road, the old Ship Inn, school and his military service. Bus driver Jack Saye spoke in 1983 about the former bus services and the closure of the Mersea depot in 1973. Ida South's 1980 interview marks her retirement after 39 years teaching at the island school, which she had once attended as a pupil.
An earlier oyster-fishing interview
In 1974, Trevor Lummis of the University of Essex recorded a 117-minute interview with Cassell French, who had been born in West Mersea in 1897. French described his work as a yacht crewman and oyster fisherman, the management of private oyster layings and oyster-buying businesses. The recording is catalogued by Essex Archives as SA 12/582/1, separately from the Lions Talking Magazine interviews. It also covers his Royal Navy service and changes to local fishing.
The Essex Archives recording and the Lions interviews were made for different projects and are held under separate catalogue references. The 1974 Cassell French interview is especially useful for the business of oyster layings and the practicalities of fishing, but it should not be cited as if it were recorded in the same series as the Mersea Lions tapes from the 1980s.
Listening to the recordings
The online collection includes interviews with Harold Cutts, Bill Clarry, Jack Saye and Johnny Milgate. Some additional recordings can be heard at Mersea Museum.
The Essex Archives catalogue identifies the Cassell French recording and its 1974 date.
Mersea Museum oral-history catalogue and listening collection