The Deasington Tapes
February 1992
Introduction
I recorded these conversations with my mother and aunts in Sutton Coldfield between 17th and 20th February 1992, using a portable cassette recorder.
There are seven cassettes. In 2014 I converted the recordings into MP3 files and copied some onto CDs so that other people, principally my sister Pam, could listen to them.
There are a few reasons why I have revisited the recordings now and made new digitized versions. The first is simply that I was unable to locate my own copies of those original MP3s; the second is that digital technology, and audio in particular, has moved on in those nine years and I knew that this time I could enlist the help of my son Kerim to clean up the sound of some of the recordings. It was also an opportunity to listen again to those still familiar voices, this time with much greater attention to detail, replaying sections, making notes on each of the recordings. I wanted to make the content of each recording easier to see at a glance (by itself, a cassette or MP3 labelled ‘Deasington Tape 1’ says nothing). Finally, I thought it would be an opportunity to let extended family members (my cousins in particular) know about the recordings and to find a way to make them easily accessible.
The eight new MP3 files are mostly of good sound quality; the only problematic one is number 5 (Connie, Betty and May at Connie’s house in Conchar Road 19th February) where, unfortunately, the recording gradually speeds up, so that the voices get faster and their pitch higher, resulting in a rather comical effect by the end. Which is a pity, as it’s the only recording of that combination of aunts (without Zillah). It’s still worth listening to but requires a little more patience!
Some of the other recordings, though good in sound quality, suffer somewhat from background noise (the endless cups of tea, cake, scones, etc.), being interrupted by phone calls, and the sisters talking over each other. This is because what took place were conversations rather than interviews (I’m not sure it would have been possible to interview three of them at the same time about the same topics).
Another challenge for the listener (one I should have foreseen) are some lengthy sections where we are looking at old photos together. As a stimulus to recollection and reminiscence its value is obvious, but I should have anticipated the problem for the listener of not knowing the pictures being described and getting lost in the plethora of names mentioned, many of them family or in-laws, but others who were friends, neighbours, work colleagues, and so on.
To help with this I have added to this archive, along with the audio files and the notes, scans of as many of the photos I have access to. These can be found in the GALLERY page of the site. There must be a great many photos, for example from Connie’s collection, whose whereabouts are unknown. Another very significant help to the listener is the Deasington Family Tree, which I have constructed with my brother David, with contributions from a few interested cousins. At the time of writing, this is to be found on the family history website MyHeritage.com (which can be viewed by invitation from me as the account holder).
I have no idea how much interest, if any, there will be amongst current family members in these recordings and in the archive as a whole. More than thirty years have passed since I travelled to Sutton to meet my aunts, in various combinations but always with the inevitable cake and tea (served in matching cups and saucers – never a mug to be seen) to get them to put on record memories of what sounded, for the most part, like a very happy childhood. And when it comes to the third and fourth generations of Deasingtons (for example, Trevor’s sons or Peter’s grandchildren) it’s hard to imagine that it will mean anything at all. But who knows? It would only take one individual to make the effort seem worthwhile – an individual (as I imagine them) with a quirky interest in ancestors, origins, social history between the wars, or perhaps just a curiosity about human character across the generations and the stories their forebears wanted to tell.
In a way, the recordings constitute a small treasure trove of family and wider social history, and it’s been fascinating to work on them. The personalities of Connie, Betty, Kath, Zillah and May came over with a vividness and clarity that took me by surprise, and I’ve greatly enjoyed re-immersing myself in their company. When I was listening on headphones it was as if they were there with me in the room, alive again, sharing stories from 60 or more years before, laughing at incidents that one of them remembered and the others had forgotten. It was also touching – not because the content is sad (it rarely is) but because at the time of recording they had only a handful of years left: three for Zillah and Betty; more like seven or eight for Kath and Connie. May, the youngest, lived the longest. Three of our uncles pre-deceased the ladies but were still alive at the time of my recording.
I have a few regrets, particularly that I never got to interview Rene Highfield (her maiden name), a first cousin of the Deasingtons, and for a period an important person in their lives. Like another sister, even. She was older than them, close to 90 by at the time of these recordings, but by all accounts still lucid and happy to talk (in the recording made on 18th February it’s revealed that my cousin Jodie had recently talked to her when she was a patient in the hospital where J was working as a nurse).
The sisters all confirmed that Rene would have known most about the early years in the married lives of Joseph (Pop) Deasington and Florence (Flo or Nana).
For different reasons, I didn’t interview my uncles, either. It seems a huge gap in the picture of Deasington family life, but I had a sense that Bernard, Jack, Tony and Frank would be wary, reluctant to talk about their past, even puzzled as to why I should think it worth the while. My aunts confirmed me in this view.
My cousins are likely to be most interested in the content of Tapes 4-8, with Connie, Betty, Kath, Zillah and May sharing their memories. The first three tapes are of Zillah alone and focus more on her family life with Henry.
I should also say a word about Deasington Tape 3B, which does not appear in this collection of MP3 recordings. It was recorded at 4 Tyne Court on 18th Feb with Zillah, Betty, May and Tricia Clark (Tony and Beulah’s daughter) present. The reason I’ve not included it here is partly the difficulty of following the free-flowing conversation, in which people are talking over each other or conducting more than one conversation at a time, and also because quite a lot of it is, however interesting, off topic (i.e. not about the sisters’ memories of their past). I have kept the recording of course and will be happy to add it to the archive (plus brief notes) if anyone wants to listen to it.
Martyn Ford
October 2023
Two generations, including first cousins and spouses
Joseph Deasington (Pop)
Florence (Flo) Deasington, nee Goodfellow (Nana)
Constance Mary Deasington (Connie)
Elizabeth Deasington (Betty)
Kathleen Gertrude Deasington (Kath)
Bernard Deasington
John Deasington (Jack)
May Deasington
Anthony Deasington (Tony)
Frank Deasington
Ada Highfield née Goodfellow
Irene Lavinia Highfield (Rene)
Winifred May Highfield (Winnie)
Joseph William Highfield (Billy)
Lilian Vera Highfield (Vera)
Frank Highfield
Charles Leonard Highfield (Len)
Gertrude Martin nee Goodfellow (Gertie)
William Martin (Billy)
Alan Martin
Ralph Martin
Ted Tarplett
Fred Crow
Alexander Gammelien (Alec)
George Leslie Ford (Henry)
Hilda May Deasington (Nickie)
Shay Deasington
Ray West
Beulah Deasington, née Fenton
Lisa Deasington, née Rudd