The story of Henry Kable as told by a distant cousin

This interview was conducted and recorded by Tim Pennick, who lives in Suffolk. Tim and I are vaguely related by marriage and I asked him to re-edit the piece for us. The musical excerpts are from the original recording of The Transports.
Dai Jeffries


Many visitors to Folking.com will know the music of Peter Bellamy and the story of The Transports.

Henry KabelHenry Kable is believed to have been the first European settler to set foot in Australia. The transportation of Henry and his future wife provided the narrative for Peter Bellamy’s folk opera The Transports written and originally recorded in the 1970s.  Suffolk based historian Barry Cable discovered his relationship with Henry as a result of a TV documentary viewed by his daughter in 1988.  We spoke to Barry about his distant relative, Henry’s death sentence for theft, his reprieve, and eventual transportation to Australia.  The interview was recorded in the museum in Laxfield in Suffolk and includes mention of a number of nearby villages where Henry’s early life took place.  The interview is interspersed with excerpts from the 1977 recording of The Transports featuring the voices of Peter Bellamy and the fiddle of Dave Swarbrick.  The sound of the church clock of Laxfield recorded as we arrived, precedes the first excerpt.


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