England 66

Listen to England 66, a man in his 40s from Gainsborough (Lincolnshire) and Yorkshire, East Midlands, England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 40s

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1962

PLACE OF BIRTH: Gainsborough, Lincolnshire

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: school headmaster

EDUCATION: We can assume a college degree, possibly in education.

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject was raised in south Yorkshire. At the time of the recording, he was a headmaster of a school in Melbourne, Australia.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Geraldine Cook

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, I can tell you a story about, going to, before coming out to Australia, uh, having had, being a clarinet player and having had many different instruments in my time, I thought, before I leave Australia – leave for Australia – there’s one thing I must do and that is to, uh, choose a new handmade clarinet to bring out with me here, knowing that I may never return to get an instrument.  So that’s what I did and I searched out a hand made clarinet maker in the middle of Yorkshire, who was operating out of a converted barn in the middle of nowhere, up in the dark hills and … first time I went to see him, uh, there was not signage on the house at all, just, uh, a tattered old barn door and I stood there for about half an hour waiting for him to come out.  He finally appeared and we had a long chat for about half a day about what I wanted and, uh, what he could offer, and, uh, he proceeded to go about making me a clarinet, and it’s a bit like having, uh, a suit made in Hong Kong, in that you have to keep going back for different fittings [laugh].  You talk about the kind of adjustments you’d like to have made, the kind of wood you’d like it made out of , how you want the finish on the metal components of it, the tuning characteristics that are relevant to Australia ’cause they’re different for Europe, um, all sorts of other peculiarities that, uh, go with having an instrument made, and after about, oh, three or four visits I finally got this instrument from him and, uh, brought it with me here to Australia and luckily it’s still in one piece, because my main concern was that, uh, the way he was storing his wood in this, uh, shed up in the, uh, the  foothills of the Yorkshire dales, uh, there was no humidity control, there was a stream running through the shed, and therefore the wood was very, uh, moisture heavy. My main concern was that this instrument was going to dry out and split and be a useless piece of firewood by the time I got here but luckily it’s, uh, still in one piece.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Phil Hubbard

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/07/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

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