The National Museum of London has uncovered what it says is the first ever recording of a family Christmas, dating back 110 years. It is of the 1902 family get-together of the Wall family from North London. It is part of 24 recordings made by the family between 1899 and 1917. The recordings are from various family gatherings, including comments made during World War I on sons who were sent to fight. The Wall family used a phonograph machine to put the audio of their special occasions on wax cylinders. Historians at the museum say it is amazing the cylinders have survived as they are very fragile and usually disintegrate over time. They also say the sound quality of the century-old recordings is amazing.

The phonograph machine was discovered in the year 2000 by David Brown, 71, in his house near Cambridge. Mr Brown is the great-grandson of Mr Cromwell Wall, who made the recordings. Brown saw no use for the machine and donated it to his local museum, which passed it on to the Museum of London in 2008. It discovered the significance of the wax cylinders and has spent the past four years painstakingly restoring them. The museum said: "We tried to reduce any noise by cleaning the cylinder first with a fine brush that can get in between the groove and once we had the best playback from the cylinder we then digitally cleaned them up". Mr Brown said: "It's incredible how clear the recordings are."