http://submitresponse.co.uk/weblog/2005/08/03/daphne-oram/ Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:56:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1 http://submitresponse.co.uk/weblog/2005/08/03/daphne-oram/comment-page-1/#comment-110650 Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:32:54 +0000 http://mottram.textdriven.com/weblog/?p=952#comment-110650 I was very sad to hear of Daphne Oram’s untimely death so young.
I met her in 1960 when she offered me accommodation in the barn attached to her newly purchased Oast House at Tower Folly. I was a lowly National Serviceman with a wife and young baby, and she took us in as very cheap boarders, to help with her own mortgage costs no doubt, but also to act as occasional housekeepers, a position we were happy to fulfill. Our main function was to keep an eye on the property while she was away on lecture tours and similar, and cook her the occasional meal. She also let part of the Oast to student nurses at the Macmillan Training establishment half a mile along the road, and asked us to keep an eye on them too.
I was privileged to watch the development of her bank of Brenell machines, and she patiently explained to me some of the simpler aspects of electronic music, including the set of specially turned capstan heads she had had made.
On her advice I invested in a Brenell recorder, and never regretted it. I have it still.
While I was stationed at West Malling, I persuaded one of the Chipmunk pilots to fly me over the Folly, and I took a photo of my wife and daughter, with Daphne, on her large lawn at the side of the Folly.
She was thrilled when my second child, Timothy, was born in the barn, where we had our home.
She was truly a remarkable and compassionate “employer” and we are forever grateful for the happy start she enabled us to have to our married life.
She will never be forgotten.
Cedric Harris
Topsy Turvy, Morcombelake, Dorset January 2008

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