Radio Walks & Sound Stories

Join indefatigable octogenarian walker and talker, landscape historian and naturalist Dennis Furnell as he guides Jonathan Kempster to the summit of Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire, the site of an Iron Age hillfort now under the care of the National Trust. Witness the changes in the physical and aural landscape that have occurred during the past 3000 years. A high-definition stereo recording, bes...

We all love a story, and here at Chiltern Open Air Museum, we have plenty to tell! On Sunday 13th October 2024, around the campfire in our beautiful surroundings, we heard from members of our community whose heritage comes from further afield. Storytellers Tetiana Pantielieieva and Vitalina Darnopykh, both from Ukraine, were joined by Sadat, a refugee academic from Afghanistan. All three have foun...

Bernard Morgan was the youngest RAF sergeant to land on Gold Beach during D-Day, 6th June 1944. He enlisted on his 18th birthday in 1942. In this interview with Jonathan Kempster of the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, Bernard explains how and why he ended up under fire on a Normandy beach, serving as a code and cypher operator. His unit fought on through Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, b...

Ron Yardley served on HMS Belfast during the Korean War. Following a recent audience with King Charles at Buckingham Palace, the 92-year old veteran feels that the conflict is no longer 'the forgotten war', but he still has work to do in educating the younger generation about events on the Korean Peninsula in the early 1950s. Interview by Jonathan Kempster, Imperial War Museum Documents &a...

Eighty years ago, on the 5th of April 1944, the Yellow Star Order was imposed on the Jewish population of Hungary - one of hundreds of anti-Jewish laws which led to the deportation and murder of over 400,000 Hungarian Jews. John Hajdu MBE, was 7-years old when he was imprisoned in the Budapest Ghetto, and his mother was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. In this Radio Walk, John tells his stor...

Visitors and storytellers react to the latest Campfire Heritage Stories event at Chiltern Open Air Museum.

Everything we do at Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) is about bringing history to life and stimulating the senses of our visitors. In our exhibits you can see, smell, and touch history, and storytelling is integral to our mission. Listen to the latest edition of Campfire Heritage Stories – an annual event when we gather to hear about the heritage and life journeys of people who have made the Chilte...

"If you can't find a photograph within ten yards of where you are, you're not looking hard enough". Paul Haley has been a professional photographer all his working life. As the youngest ever Senior Photographer at Soldier magazine he was posted to the South Atlantic to document the Falklands War of 1982. He recorded more than 2000 images, now conserved in the collection of the Im...

To what extent does the history of Israel-Palestine inform the response to human suffering in present day Gaza? This discussion took place in Bristol on Saturday the 4th of November 2023 during a march and rally co-ordinated by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Jonathan Kempster of the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive spoke to Linzy Na Nakorn, a human rights and cycling campaigner, (co-director...

Organist Sergei Lukashuk interviewed in the Crimean Memorial Church, Istanbul, by Jonathan Kempster. Recorded during the IASA Conference at Istanbul University, September 2023. www.achurchnearyou.com/church/33329/ 2023.iasa-web.org/

Dr Geeta Ludhra lives in the Chilterns, she is the daughter of first-generation South Asian parents who emigrated from India in the early 1960s. She is a Lecturer in Education at Brunel University, where she is also engaged in academic research. Geeta walked and talked with Jonathan Kempster at Chiltern Open Air Museum, telling the story of her life journey so far, and her ambition to ‘decolonise’...

A Century of Steam – from the sound collection of P&O Heritage Archive, a recently conserved copy of a BBC radio programme broadcast on the National Programme on the 6th of October 1937 to celebrate the Centenary of the P&O shipping line, (originally produced by Felix Felton). The audio material was recovered from eleven 12-inch acetate cellulose-lacquer grooved 78rpm radio transcription d...

As the BBC launches its initiative to document the lives of Second World War veterans, experience an award-winning outreach programme of the same name: 'We Were There' is a unique experience for museum visitors to meet veterans and eyewitnesses to conflict and ask them questions about their lives and experiences, hearing their true stories first hand. The team, led by the IWM's Public Engagement &...

At Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) our mission is to document and conserve the story of the Chilterns. Whether it’s the buildings and objects we save, or the people who lived and worked in and around them - our responsibility is to tell those stories to future generations. We discovered that a great way of encouraging storytelling is to sit around the campfire, toasting marshmallows, and listening...

The site of Ivinghoe Benedictine Priory, dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, lies in the hamlet of St Margaret's, between the villages of Great and Little Gaddesden, in the North Chiltern Hills. On the 1,718th anniversary of Margaret's martyrdom, local people were led on a pilgrimage to ponder the question, "Did St Margaret actually exist?". As they contemplated the monastic life of the 12th Cent...

Paula Gamester is the Founder and CEO of The Sewing Rooms, a social enterprise based in Skelmersdale in the north of England. Aware of the cost-of-living crisis that has hit many families in the United Kingdom she designed a product that drastically cuts cooking costs and fuel consumption. Not only does ‘The Sew Fab Bag’ save money, it also massively reduces our carbon footprint and reduces landfi...

Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) marked the Queen's Platinum Jubilee by inviting some very special guests from local care homes to a celebratory tea dance. With hundreds of other visitors touring the 45-acre site, there was a mood of fun and celebration. Tea and cake prompted storytelling of Jubilees past and even of the 1953 Coronation itself. Event organised by Jacqui Gellman. Audio production by...

In April 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands. BBC radio reporter Laurie Margolis gained the first confirmation from the Islands, via a fragile shortwave radio link, that the invasion had taken place. He told his story to the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive. Oral history interview by Jonathan Kempster for Imperial War Museums, www.iwm.org.uk/ An edited version of this material was...

As the nation celebrated 'Armed Forces Day' a group of Quakers audited their garden ecology and drank tea for peace. http://www.llquakers.org.uk/hemel/web/ Produced by Oral History Sound Recording, July 2022.

George Moreton is a passionate ornithologist living in the Chiltern Hills. He travels the world to watch birds. In this episode of Radio Walks, George guides novice 'twitcher' Jonathan Kempster on a walk through the Gade River Valley. We learn the truth about the dawn chorus, and hear what's up and what's down in the bird league table. Garden feeding, modern farming, road transport, air travel, an...

Pablo Behrens was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and has lived in London since 1980. He is an award-winning producer, writer, and director. In 2021 he bought a boat for £1 and navigated the Thames Estuary, producing the short film 'The Crossing '. The work demonstrated the forces of nature - and the vulnerability - of the river environment. That intimate experience has motivated him to buy a bigger...

Leona Fensome is a producer and historian. Itinerant by nature, she has made St Albans her 46th home in 45 years. Her mixed-race heritage has made her inquisitive of people – always looking round the corner for an interesting story to re-tell. Jonathan Kempster managed to catch up with her briefly, and share a walk around her current nesting site, the cathedral city of St Albans, to hear the story...

Spend half an hour walking the ancient and unique landscape of Box Moor in the Chiltern Hills with life-trustee Dennis Furnell.  In spite of the decision to drive a bypass straight through the middle of this vulnerable chalk downland on the edge of Hemel Hempstead, indefatigable 84-year-old Dennis - naturalist, writer, broadcaster, photographer, painter, and guardian of nature - will never gi...

Radio Walks – The Urban Gardener, Kate Poland.  “Everyone has a right to access nature and green spaces. It should not be a privilege. Growing stuff is political and empowering: putting a seed in the ground and creating something is a rebellious act”.   In the winter of 2010 Kate Poland set up a community garden on some disused land near her home in Hackney, east London. The garden...

The Gaddesden Estate is a 1,900 acre farming and forestry estate in the Chiltern Hills. The Halsey family has lived and farmed there for over 500 years. Today it is run by Nicholas Halsey and his son Guy. In this radio walk, Nick guides Jonathan Kempster through the woodlands and fields from Home Farm, through Marsh Wood, to the Golden Parsonage. Amongst the sheep, grassland, skylark, and red kite...