Legacy Matters

Voices coming through time

Voices from a 1916 Christmas in a family Christmas recording hidden since the Great War

Ghostly voices from a family celebrating Christmas together during the First World War have been heard for the first time in nearly a century.  The recordings provide a fascinating insight into an English family living at a tumultuous time in world history.

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Sean Street, professor of radio at Bournemouth University has studied the recordings. He said: 'They are extraordinary and very moving partly because it is in the middle of the First World War.'We don't know the end story of what happened to the family after the recordings.

'It is like them coming through time at us. When you listen to them it is almost like they are really there. 

'They are fascinating documents. It is oral history for the people by the people.