THE EXMOOR ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE
EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE 
Between 2000 and 2002, Birdie Johnson travelled throughout Exmoor with her recorder on behalf of the Dulverton and District Civic Society, listening to people's life stories. Whatever their profession, whether blacksmith, chambermaid, farm worker or landed gentry, Exmoor's older generation shared their lives with us. The result is an oral history archive which ranges widely, touching on subjects (to name but a few) from agriculture and engineering to whortleberry picking, peace protests, washday and hunting. It captures pivotal moments in Exmoor's history, including the two World Wars, the formation of the Exmoor National Park Authority and the 1952 Lynmouth flood disaster. Augmented by a number of recordings made a few years earlier, it features over 200 hours of recording, giving a unique insight into life on Exmoor during the 20th century. In all, 78 people contributed to what would become the Exmoor Oral History Archive.
While Birdie criss-crossed Exmoor, from contributor to contributor, photographer Mark Rattenbury traced his own path across the moor, adding image to voice to complete the picture. It is Mark's beautiful portraits you see here, and which feature in Reflections - life portraits of Exmoor, the commemorative book of the archive. The contributors may not all still be with us, but they live on through their portraits, and the thoughts and memories they shared with us. This website, created by the South West Heritage Trust, now includes the added facility of being able to listen to the recordings themselves. It is a testament to the archive's continued importance and the debt we owe to those 78 people who agreed to take part in the project all those years ago.
This website has a nearly complete set of the interviews made for the project, together with the photographs taken by Mark Rattenbury. We hope very much that you will enjoy using it, but please note that the recordings and photographs are in copyright. They may be used for private research and educational use only. For all other uses, please contact SOMERSET ARCHIVES AND LOCAL STUDIES.
One interview is not currently available online, and a small number of interviews have been edited to protect people's privacy. The full recordings may be listened to in the searchrooms at SOMERSET HERITAGE CENTRE in Taunton, the DEVON HERITAGE CENTRE in Exeter and the NORTH DEVON RECORD OFFICE in Barnstaple. The master recordings, summaries, photographs and other project records can be accessed at the Somerset Heritage Centre and the North Devon Record Office. More information about visiting our archives can be found on the South West Heritage Trust website.
The summaries available on this website are a guide to the full contents of the recordings (some are in outline only). Although they are as accurate as possible, they are working documents and should be viewed as a complement to the audio archive, not a substitute. The views expressed are those of the contributors.
When searching the archive, please be aware that a number of abbreviations have been used. For instance, the Exmoor National Park Authority is also referred to as NPA, ENP, NP. The same applies to other organisations.
If you'd like to learn more about the project, please click the link below. There, you can read about Birdie, Mark and everyone who made the Exmoor Oral History Archive possible.
| CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT |