The late Ken Yaxley had a life-long involvement with public address and sound reinforcement. His father had started ‘Yaxley’s’ in the 1930s with Marconi equipment, founding a successful business that continued until Ken’s retirement in 2010. Over many years, with the aid of some like-minded friends and colleagues, Ken put together a collection of equipment representing both the industry as a whole, and also ‘Yaxley’s’ the company, incorporating the collection of the late Frank Poperwell and material from the Association of Public Address Engineers (APAE). A purpose-designed building at the Yaxleys’ home in Suffolk was the venue for this project, where the collection was displayed in the format of a prosperous and well-stocked showroom. Hundreds of artefacts lined the walls and filled the showcases, including microphones, mixers, amplifiers and loudspeakers, tape and record decks and ephemera from the 1930s to the end of the 20th century.

Ken and his team obviously took great pride in the project and made it accessible to interested visitors, but this phase of the collection’s development necessarily came to an end when Ken passed away in 2018, and his widow, Jo, in 2019. Erstwhile trustees Peter Henderson and Stephen Alderson, who had made significant contributions to assembling the collection, were keen to find a home that would support its continued development and display. With this in mind, retired ISCVE member Tony Clayden forged a connection with the team from Electrokinetica, a nascent electrotechnical museum project with a wide enough scope to encompass PA. The idea resonated with Electrokinetica founder Lucien Nunes, whose background focused on entertainment audio-visual technology, and who had already considered the need to represent the sector within Electrokinetica. Tony and Lucien developed a proposal to entrust the collection to a group of initial trustees of Electrokinetica pending the incorporation of the trust itself, which was approved by the solicitor to the Yaxleys’ estate. Once the formalities had been completed, a team from Electrokinetica spent a number of weekends in early 2019 making a photographic inventory and packing the collection safely for transportation and interim storage. Over 150 boxes and dozens of larger items were then moved into a self-storage unit nearby in Norwich, where it just squeezed into a very tightly packed 130 square feet. The collection was expected to remain there for a year at the most, pending the acquisition of premises.

The limitations imposed by lockdown more or less halted work on the project, although useful progress was made in the background on the planning and paperwork for the incorporation of the charitable organisation itself. A new working title for the project emerged in the process: ‘MEET’ – the Museum of Electrical and Electronic Technology. March 2020 saw the signing of a 5-year lease on a 4,000 sq. ft. building on an industrial site near Bedford, for Electrokinetica to use as a store, workshop and interim display area. Although not suitable for full-scale public opening, it will accommodate working parties and visitor groups and has many useful features. Relaxing of restrictions in late 2020 allowed the collection to be moved from the storage unit to the new building. An area of the building was earmarked for the PA display and in July 2021, unpacking and sorting began. Initially, all the available material is being set out while curated stories and interpretations are developed from the available material and potentially operational items for interactive exhibits are checked over.

When considering how to present the collection, it is worth taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. Conserving historical items for future academic research, thereby advancing education for the public benefit, is a charitable aim worthy of pursuit in itself. The Yaxley collection, however, offers great potential for stimulating interest and education in communications and audio technology as a whole, if it can be opened up and made inviting to people outside the PA industry. This is one of MEET’s core principles; to offer a joined-up view and interpretation of different aspects of electronic technology that have often been represented in isolation. ‘Siloing’ of knowledge and experience tends to occur when collections of technical artefacts are brought together by industry professionals with clear boundaries around their fields of interest. Public address is a good example, since although its use is widespread and familiar, the technology that underpins it is highly specialised. Nonetheless, the bedroom guitarist who wants more distortion, the student of psychology with an interest in the dynamics of public assembly and the child fascinated by the display of their own voice on an oscilloscope, can all find a link to public address once it is placed within their reach.

If just a few percent of the wider audience are inspired by what they see and hear to learn a little more about the science and technique of sound or another related topic, the original work by Ken and the APAE in creating an educational resource is rendered all the more valuable.

Anyone who would like to visit the collection, or help with setting it up, is welcome to contact the MEET team.

In the first instance, please contact Tony Clayden tony@clayden.org.uk or by telephone 020-8449 5559.