Unlocking Our Sound Heritage

Between 2019 - 2022 Tyne & Wear Archives contributed to the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project, a national partnership, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and led by the British Library, to save almost half a million rare and unique recordings that were threatened by physical degradation or stored on formats that can no longer be played.

Home to over 900 sound recordings, encompassing over 6000 digitised audio files, Tyne & Wear Archives has a wide range of recordings, including oral histories, audio tours of local communities, radio programmes, and even soundtracks to Fenwick Christmas windows. 

All of our sound recordings are either digital files, or for older recordings, available as a digital copy. Digital files can be accessed on computers in the public searchroom at Tyne & Wear Archives. Where copyright allows, we also offer a chargeable digital file download service.

In 2024, artist Richard Bliss and writer Stephanie Lyttle collaborated to produce two art pieces now on display at Jarrow and Chichester Metro stations inspired by the sound archives they were working with at Tyne & Wear Archives. 

Richard Bliss, when artist in residence at Tyne & Wear Archives created these blogs as part of the ‘Unlocking Our Sound Heritage’ project:

• Listening Between the Lines:  Uncovering the Hidden in Oral Histories
• Listening Between the Lines: The Emotional Gap

Browse our Sound Recordings User Guide here, or search the full catalogue.