legends · 5 min read ·
Oral History
An oral-history interview records a marsh farmer who never answered when his name was called, and an interviewer who does.
**Marshside Community Archive — Oral History Project**
**Interview 41** · **Interviewee:** Mr. Harold Voss (b. 1938) · **Interviewer:** Priya Nair · **Date:** 12 September
**Subject:** Life on the marsh farms, 1940s–1960s. **Recording:** 1h 14m
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**Transcript extract (00:00–08:12)**
**PRIYA:** Mr. Voss, thank you for talking to us. Can you tell me where you grew up?
**HAROLD:** On the marsh. Hollin Farm. My father worked it. We kept sheep, and a few cows, and cut the reed for thatch in the autumn. It was a hard life but it was a good one.
**PRIYA:** What are your earliest memories?
**HAROLD:** The sea wall. Walking it with my father in the evening. And the fog. We had fog off the water every night in October, thick as wool. Father used to go out with a lantern to bring the stock in. He said you could lose yourself in a hundred yards.
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**Transcript extract (08:12–21:40)**
**PRIYA:** Were there any local customs? Any traditions on the marsh?
**HAROLD:** Oh, a few. You'd leave a lamp in the window on fog nights. To show the way. And you never answered if someone called your name from the marsh.
**PRIYA:** Why not?
**HAROLD:** Because it wouldn't be someone you knew. The old people said the marsh had no voices of its own, and that it borrowed them. If you answered, it kept yours.
**PRIYA:** Did you ever hear anyone calling?
**HAROLD:** Once. I was twelve. I was coming back over the wall with the dog. A voice called me from the reeds, quite near. It was my mother's. She said, "Harold, come on, I've got the tea on." I knew she was at home. I stood still. And the dog sat down in the path and would not go on.
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**Transcript extract (21:40–34:05)**
**PRIYA:** What did you do?
**HAROLD:** I turned round and walked home the long way, by the road, with my hands over my ears. It took me two hours. When I got in my mother said, "Where have you been? I've been calling you." And I said, "I heard you." And she said, "No. I called from the house." I never told her.
**PRIYA:** That's a remarkable story.
**HAROLD:** It's not a story. It's a thing that happened. I'm telling you because I think it's still there.
**PRIYA:** What do you mean?
**HAROLD:** The voice. I've heard it since. Every autumn. In the back garden of the house I live in now, which is nowhere near the marsh. I hear a voice calling over the hedge. Sometimes my mother's. Sometimes my wife's, God rest her. Once or twice, my own.
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**Transcript extract (34:05–52:30)**
**PRIYA:** And have you ever answered?
**HAROLD:** No.
**PRIYA:** Why not?
**HAROLD:** Because it would keep mine.
**PRIYA:** What would it do with it?
**HAROLD:** I don't know. But I've often thought, in the evenings, what it would be like to be called by a voice that sounded exactly like me. Would you answer, then? It isn't an unreasonable thing to do. Would you know, if it was yours?
**PRIYA:** I'm not sure.
**HAROLD:** No. Nor am I.
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**Transcript extract (52:30–1:14:00)**
**PRIYA:** Mr. Voss, I think we're nearly done. Is there anything else you would like to add?
**HAROLD:** Yes. I'd like to say thank you for coming. It's good to have someone to talk to. Most people don't ask.
**PRIYA:** It's been a pleasure.
**HAROLD:** And I'd like to say that it was a mistake to come. I mean you. I should have told you not to.
**PRIYA:** I'm sorry?
**HAROLD:** *[In a different voice. Female. Light. Accented.]* "Priya, I've got the tea on."
**PRIYA:** *[Pause.]* I'm sorry, Mr. Voss, did you say something?
**HAROLD:** *[Normal voice.]* I said it's getting late. You should go.
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**Archivist's notes (Marshside Community Archive, 14 September)**
The recording was reviewed by two colleagues. Both heard the interview as transcribed, up to 52:30. At 52:30 the volume drops. A second voice can be heard, close to the microphone, speaking in a tone much like the interviewer's. The voice says: "Priya, I've got the tea on." It repeats the line several times, with a little variation, as a person might practise a phrase.
The interviewer, Priya Nair, was not present at that point in the recording. She says she left the house at 52:00, drove home, and put the kettle on.
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**Archivist's notes (continued, 20 September)**
Ms. Nair did not come to work on Monday. Her flat was checked. Her door was open. The kettle was on the stove, boiling dry. She was not in the flat.
Mr. Voss, when asked, said he had not seen her since the interview. He said he had never been to the interview. He said he had been at his niece's in Leeds the whole week and had not recorded anything for anybody.
I asked him why the recording had his voice on it. He said: "Because it was kept."
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**Archivist's notes (final, 28 October)**
Interview 41 has been catalogued and will be held in the archive's restricted collection. The recording is 1 hour 14 minutes in length. At 52:31 in the playback copy, the voice of Priya Nair can be heard, clearly, from a position near the microphone. She says, in her usual voice: "I'm sorry, Mr. Voss, I seem to have lost track of the time."
Mr. Voss says: "That's all right. You can go home now."
She says: "Thank you."
Nobody on the staff has been able to identify the next question. It was asked at 52:44 in a clear, friendly, familiar voice. The question was: *"And what was your earliest memory?"* The reply, from a voice that sounds very like Mr. Voss, was: *"The sea wall. Walking it with my father in the evening."*