The first Wessex of the 1970s seems to have been a one-off: the only record that I have been able to trace on it is the one shown above, 'Rapunzel' by the New Wessex String Quartet, which came out in 1975. Its matrix number was LYN-3252/3 - it was a Lyntone product - and there is another number, SHP-7-101, in the run-off, which I would guess was the catalogue number, insofar as it had one. Presumably the prefix of the latter number refers to South Hill Park Studios, Bracknell, where the tracks were recorded. The material on the EP was based on the well-known children's story; it was set to music by Alan Ridout and narrated by Alan Dancey. The quartet made an album of similar material for Argo three years later, this time with narration by Richard Baker, their honorary president ('Stories With Strings', ZDSW-706). Wessex Recordings operated from an address in Vale Road, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. It doesn't appear to have had any connection with the other Wessex label.
Copyright 2012 Robert Lyons.