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Scilly Voices

Scilly Voices is an exciting new project which sees members of the Isles of Scilly community working with academics at the University of Sheffield.

The Isles of Scilly Museum has been collecting material for their Oral History Archive since the early 1990s, when volunteer, Mary Bushell, started interviewing Scillonians in order to record precious memories of life on Scilly. Since then, the archive has grown and now includes interviews collected by Ray Williams in the late 1990s, recordings of local events (such as May Day, Lifeboat ceremonies and Spratting), landscape footage, and recordings of the Scillonian Entertainers and the St. Mary´s Theatre Club. There are also a number of private donations, some of which are old black and white or silent films which have been copied from old 8mm cine film.

It is hoped that the archive will be useful in a number of ways. It provides a historic record, and the interviews provide valuable insight into life on Scilly and Scillonian families. In addition to developing the archive for this general purpose, Dr Emma Moore of the University of Sheffield will be using the archive to explore the dialect of English heard on Scilly. In written accounts of Scilly, many have noted that the people of Scilly speak "better English" than people on the mainland. However, there is disagreement about the extent to which Scilly has (or, indeed, ever had) a dialect of its own. There is also disagreement about the extent to which language on Scilly has been influenced by the Cornish language and the Cornish dialect of English. On the other hand, some believe that, not only did Scilly have a language variety that was distinct from the mainland, each of the individual islands on Scilly had its own distinct dialects at one time too. The recordings in the Oral History Archive suggest that some people do sound `Scillonian´, and Emma hopes to uncover what it is that makes them sound this way. She will also be looking for changes in the variety of English spoken on Scilly. Because Scilly's population is very mixed (including people who have lived there all their lives, incomers and seasonal workers), any language change will help to reveal the impact of social and cultural changes on Scilly

Visit the 'Scilly Voices' website