John Tanner
Project Manager, Barnsley Museums Service
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Town Hall, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2TA
Telno: 07738 475394
Email: johntanner@barnsley.gov.uk

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Van Wilson
York Oral History Society
Telno: 01904 630970 (after 6 pm)
Email: vann@vanalexinamay.freeserve.co.uk

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Michelle Winslow
Research Fellow
Academic Unit of Supportive Care, University of Sheffield, Sykes House, Little Common Lane, Sheffield S11 9NE
Telno: 0114 2620174 ext 28
Email: m.winslow@sheffield.ac.uk

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North Yorkshire

Over the last year the York Oral History Society has had to move from its home in the city archives, due to reorganisation and closure of that building. We now have the collection partly in the city library’s storage facility and partly in the archive of York Archaeological Trust. The city library has got through the first stage of a lottery bid for a new extension which will house, amongst others, the York Oral History Society collection which now totals over 500 interviews and 5000 photographs.
We are currently applying for funding to digitise and transcribe a number of First World War interviews carried out on reel to reel recorders in the 1970s, we also aim to produce a publication using extracts from these recordings.

One of our members, Brian Freeborn, is interviewing members of the ambulance service, where he worked before retirement. Mike Race continues to interview people who owned shops and family businesses in the city.

I have just finished a book on the history of Clifton, a suburb of York, which is 50 per cent research and 50 per cent oral history. I interviewed over 40 local people and found some wonderful stories. I am just beginning a new project on sport in York to tie in with the Olympics in 2012, to celebrate York men and women who have excelled in particular Olympic sports. We have archers, rowers, sailors, hockey players, fencers, footballers, swimmers, taekwondo masters, volleyball players, runners, cyclists, divers, horse riders, boxers, wrestlers and weightlifters amongst others, including competitors in the Olympics and Paralympics, so it is proving very interesting.
(Van Wilson)

South Yorkshire

The South Yorkshire Regional Network hosted its 12th event on Saturday 25 June in the centre of Sheffield. The day brought together seventeen oral historians from around the region to share experiences and hear presentations by local projects.

Emily Chalkley and Barry Elliott, third year students taking 'Community History' at Sheffield Hallam University, presented their work conducting interviews with community historians in Sheffield and Barnsley. John Burns, Kayleigh Fletcher and Barry Elliott have interviewed members of a group at Wincobank, North Sheffield, who are campaigning to turn to a local chapel into a heritage centre. Whilst Emily Chalkley interviewed history enthusiasts for ‘Experience Barnsley’, a project collecting stories for a new Barnsley Museum opening in 2012 (www.wearebarnsley.com/experience-barnsley). In addition to helping with the progress of both projects, the students very much enjoyed the experience, such that three of them are keen to continue with oral history in the future. For more information contact Alison Twells: A.Twells@shu.ac.uk

Charlie Wells of The Faceless Company (www.facelessco.com), gave a reflective presentation about their work on the Agbrigg & Belle Vue community project: Stories of Movement, Migration and Home Faceless. They asked: ‘Why we did oral history and would we do it again?’ Faceless worked with groups of people who live, work and visit the area to interpret stories and create art work and illustrations for an exhibition and a book.  There was lively discussion around both projects, with plenty of opportunities for the group to raise oral history issues pertinent to their own work.

The following are a few examples of further oral history work taking place in and around the South Yorkshire region.

For a special summer exhibition in 2012, the National Coal Mining Museum plans to interview people from ex-mining communities about their sporting interests. The Exhibition called ‘Colliery Champions; Mining, Sport and the Olympics’ will look at, amongst other things, the development of sporting facilities and groups within mining communities and what has happened to them since the decline of the pits. They are keen to make contact with people in former mining communities. Could anyone who is interested please contact Anne Bradley, Curator (Social & Oral History): social.history@ncm.org.uk or telephone 01924 848806.

Wild Rose Heritage and Arts (WRHaA) is a community oral history charity that records people of all ages who have lived or worked in or around Hebden Bridge and the upper Calder valley, West Yorkshire. They originally collected and archived oral history projects and memorabilia, but have expanded their activities and focus to include intergenerational interviewing, dissemination activities and recording contemporary oral histories. They aim to understand the ways in which people both change and are changed by the places in which they live and work. By looking at the themes of change and diversity they believe that oral history can play a valuable role in the fostering of communal identity, by giving participants both a sense of belonging and the confidence to participate in the life and work of the wider community. Contact: Tony Wright (Manager) by phone 01422 843398 or email mailto:info@wildrosearts.net.  Web address: www.wildrosearts.net

The Moor Memories project has been focusing on the collection of oral histories detailing life and work in the moorland communities of the Peak District and has gathered information on farming, forestry, water workers, gamekeeping and moorland management, as well as first-hand accounts of the early campaigns for access to moorlands. The project will make the material available through a permanent archive at the Moorland Centre in Edale, as well as running drama workshops for young people based on the stories collected, and creating mobile phone downloads for walkers, in the tradition of the Clarion Rambler handbooks of the 1930s and 1940s.  Three booklets are also in production, including one based on the South Pennine moors around Holme Village which is the last place in England where the tradition of domestic peat cutting still continues. Volunteers have been trained in oral history collection and have been central to gathering material for the project.  Moor Memories is managed as part of the Moors for the Future Partnership, which has gained valuable insight into historic methods of managing the moorland it now conserves. For further information contact Julia Shergold: Julia.Shergold@peakdistrict.gov.uk

An oral history and photography service in the Sheffield Macmillan Unit for Palliative Care, Northern General Hospital (NGH), has run successfully since April 2007 with the support of the NGH Charitable Trust. The service enables people who have contact with the unit, patients, family and friends, to produce their own audio life story recordings and photographs with the support of specialists in oral history and photography and a team of excellent trained volunteers. The creation of audio digital recordings and photographic images can enrich experience of palliative care and to date we have conducted 144 oral history interviews with 82 people. For more information please contact Michelle Winslow: m.winslow@sheffield.ac.uk

An important development in South Yorkshire is a collaboration between regional networkers Michelle Winslow and John Tanner, and Alison Twells, Sheffield Hallam University. They are currently developing a web-based Community History Forum to showcase oral and community history projects in the region. Hopefully next year’s network report will carry news of the Forum’s successful launch, its role in supporting oral historians in the region and providing a platform for their work.
(Michelle Winslow & John Tanner)