About
TisTalk is a community podcast about the stories, events and people of Tisbury and surrounding villages, Wiltshire, UK. We cover the Nadder Valley and the wider Cranborne Chase area, with about 30 minutes of fantastic local content every week. Launched in 2022, we exist to bring you inspiring and positive stories about our beautiful area, with no adverts. Mary Myers is your TisTalk host. Mary's co-hosts are locals: Kate Gamm, Anne Martin, and Peter Shallcross. Lal Poynter, Jerry Mason, Annie Philpott, Louis Davison and Liz Coyle Camp are regular – and treasured – contributors and co-presenters. Music and stings are courtesy of two young men from Tisbury, Finn Murphy and Tom Davison.
Tisbury and the Nadder Valley (map courtesy of tisburyparishchurch.org)
About us
Mary moved from London to Wardour 24 years ago. Now semi-retired, her 30 year career has been in international development, involving a lot of travel to Africa. Her specialism is communications and media: helping community radio stations in Uganda, D R Congo, Malawi, Mali and other countries. The African way of doing community radio, by and for villagers, is what inspires her to do TisTalk. She says: “I love radio. It sets the imagination free. Someone said radio has the best pictures!” Mary did a BBC course in radio production, back when editing was done with razor blades. More recently, she has learned audio skills from volunteering at Salisbury Hospital Radio (Radio Odstock) and Alfred Community Radio in Shaftesbury. She is currently doing a Masters in journalism.
Mary loves: Walking to Wardour Castle and listening to 'Desert Island Discs' (often at the same time). Mary hates: The sound of her own voice!
Mary Myers, TisTalk host and producer
Peter Shallcross, TisTalk co-host. Peter is a dairy farmer and conservationist who has lived almost all his life in Tisbury.
Kate Gamm, TisTalk co-host. Kate is a broadcaster and former teacher of film-studies. She has lived in Tisbury for three years, having previously run an arts venue in Devon.
Anne Martin, TisTalk co-host.
Why a podcast for Tisbury?
We wanted to create a hyper-local radio station but without the hassle and expense of a radio mast, transmitter or licences. So a short, weekly podcast was the answer. Having seen how Tisbury and the surrounding villages came together during Covid, we wanted to interview all the unsung heroes and heroines in the area and all the interesting, generous and creative people we know – and to search out those we didn’t. Whether it’s the local doctor, a youth leader, artist, author, fund-raiser or fire-fighter… we cover all walks of life. From Tisbury’s Carnival to local elections; from art shows at Messums, to plays by Tisbury Arts Group; from the Angling Club to the History Society; from bats to gardening, from music in the church to mooing in the fields… we cover it all. Who knew that we had so many illustrious locals living here? Look through TisTalk’s past episodes and you’re sure to find some names you recognise!
Ethics and Permissions
We always ask permissions and never intrude on people’s privacy. We never publish interviews with, or pictures of, children without their parents’ and/or school’s consent. Anne Martin, who goes into local schools, is DBS checked. We never share our mailing list with anyone else. We are all unpaid volunteers and do not receive any benefits from any individual or company we cover (apart from the odd cup of tea!). We do not run advertisements or receive any commercial sponsorship.
Thanks
We are grateful for small grants from Tisbury Parish Council and Nadder Community Energy for our running costs and some equipment. The Alice Combes Trust and Cranborne Chase National Landscape have helped us in the past with our publicity. We should also acknowledge our wonderful families, who have helped with recording equipment, music, stings, logos, artwork, printing, What's On listings and being quiet when we're recording in the kitchen! Huge thanks to our many local contributors who are too numerous to mention.
love from Mary and the TisTalk team