Talking Tent encourages conversations about local landscapes and living through the changing seasons. It’s a chance to learn from each other, rekindle our own life memories and share stories.

As part this project, you are invited to send us a short audio recording of either your own memories, thoughts and anecdotes or it could be an inter-generational conversation between two people. You can record on your phone or device and then simply upload it below where it will be shared on our Talking Map.

At Talking Tent we’re interested to hear about ALL your stories of people and place in Dorset, be it about a village, town, farm or perhaps a house, field or tree…. Anyone of any age can be part of a conversation or story, and we have some ideas and tips to help you.

Here’s a few questions that might perhaps trigger some ideas ….

• What special places outdoors do you like to get away to?
• What seasonal celebrations do you enjoy?
• Do you have your own time-honoured family traditions?
• What personal anecdotes and amusing yarns do you or someone in your family love to tell?
• Do you have particular knowledge about local food, folklore or customs?
• Have you learned about your local history of place and people?
• Do old photos trigger memories for you on places and experiences?

• You can do your recording anywhere, although if your story relates to a specific place you may wish to go there and record onsite.
• Try to avoid places with lots of traffic or other mechanical noise interference – although natural background sounds like birdsong are great.
• It only needs to be a few minutes long but please make sure it’s no more than 5 minutes.
• Be as specific with details as you can – it’s not boring to show us what working life was like or what it was like to be at a village fair. Don’t forget to mention local names of places and objects.
• Make sure you read through all the details and terms (below) and you have to hand specific details like location as we will need that when you upload your submissions.
• If you have any photos that link to your recording we would love to share them with your audio clip.

• ALL PHOTOS AND AUDIO FILES MUST HAVE YOUR NAME AND LOCATION IN THE FILE NAME
• Audio Files as a MP3 – no more than 5mins in length. If you need to convert your file from a wav for example you can use a free service like this.
• Photo File Size max 2MB
• Where possible please upload a photo with your audio recording of the location so we can share together.
• You are welcome to submit up to 5 memories / locations.
• Ideally all memories are from locations within the Dorset AONB – you can find a map of the AONB boundary HERE , but we will also love to hear if your special place is close by too.
• If you are under 18, your parent / guardian must submit this form on your behalf.
• The Dorset AONB team reserve the right to not publish, show or include any submissions that they feel are not suitable.
• Personal Data: The data contained within this form will be held securely and not shared with anyone, unless the Organisation is obligated to do so for legal purposes, such as evidencing ownership or demonstrating a valid Agreement. Privacy policy