Martin Astell
Sound Archivist
Essex Sound and Video Archive, Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 6YT
Telno: 01245 244624
Email: martin.astell@essexcc.gov.uk

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Julia Drake

Address not provided
Telno:
Email: j.e.drake@talk21.com

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Dien Luu
Luton Voices Co-ordinator
Museums Luton, Luton Cultural Services Trust, Wardown Park, Old Bedford Road, Luton, LU2 7HA
Telno: 01582 548486
Email: dien.luu@luton.gov.uk

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Carmela Semeraro
Freelance oral historian, former co-ordinator of Marston Vale Forest Oral History Project
Address not provided
Telno:
Email: carmela@semeraro.wanadoo.co.uk

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Juliana Vandegrift
Freelance oral historian
Ipswich
Telno:
Email: Juliana.vandegrift@btinternet.com

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Bedfordshire

Marston Vale Oral History Project 2001-2005:
‘Changing Landscapes: Changing Lives’

This four-year Heritage Lottery Fund Oral History Project, which began early in 2001, was successfully completed in July 2005. As a project officer, I conducted over 270 tape-recorded interviews with a range of men and women who have lived and worked in the Marston Vale, Bedfordshire. The aim of this project was to create an Oral History Archive that shows, through the voices of individuals who have lived and worked in this area over the last one hundred years, how life and the physical environment have changed. Brickmaking, farming and local village economies have all changed enormously and with them the lives of communities, families and individuals.

Each of the interviews cover a wide range of topics relating to individual life experiences, as well as the developments within agriculture, horticulture, village life, and the expansion, consolidation and contraction within the brickmaking industry through the twentieth century. Topics raised include childhood, home, family life, schooling, adolescence, courting, wartime experience, immigration, work experiences, further education, social life and changing attitudes, religious belief and church and chapel-going, housing, shopping, leisure pursuits and entertainment, married life, redundancy and retirement, old age and death.

The largest subject dealt with is, not surprisingly, the brick industry, since London Brick Company became the largest brick works in the world. Interviews have been conducted with a large range of workers from labourers and immigrant workers, through the various specialist craft workers to supervisors, office staff, catering staff, transport managers and drivers, scientists, and managing directors.

Farming and market gardening are also covered extensively, charting the ups and downs of the industries, increasing mechanisation, reduction in the labour force and changing market conditions. Village life and the changes, which have occurred from Victorian times to the present, are viewed from the perspective of individuals who experienced them, or heard their parents or grandparents talk about them. Aspects of rural life and the countryside, which have long disappeared, are touched on, as are social attitudes and behaviour reflecting the age in which they lived. Interviewees have ranged in age from centenarians, to those born in the 1950s. Public debate issues such as pollution and the threat to the countryside, land filling, disappearing village facilities and housing development are all aired in the interviews, revealing a wide range of attitudes and perspectives.

Some extracts from interviews can be viewed and heard on the Marston Vale website at www.marstonvale.org/oralhistory/ and on the BBC web pages www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work. The complete Oral History Archive summaries are also accessible on line from the Bedfordshire & Luton Archive & Records Service at www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/archive (search for catalogues ref. No. Z1205/). If the complete transcripts are needed, these are available from Bedfordshire & Luton Archive & Records Service, and also at Bedford Central Library in the Heritage Room www.bedfordshire.gov.uk.

Unfortunately, since the above project came to an end I have not been able to become involved in any other major project. Nevertheless I am still very busy as volunteer to digitize all the 270 interviews so that they too can soon be accessible at Bedford Central Library. I am still busy promoting the Oral History Society by giving talks, as well as responding to requests for information and advice on making bids for oral history projects and dealing with requests from the media.

The Bedfordshire Women’s Land Army Archive has been researched by Stuart Antrobus who is well known in Bedfordshire for his interest in Bedfordshire’s ‘home front’ experience during the Second World War. Stuart works as an adult education tutor and speaker and has contributed a number of articles to national and local historical journals. The Women’s Land Army Archive is the culmination of his five years’ primary research. Click here for more information.

Carmela Semeraro

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Essex

Having recently taken over the role of Regional Representative from my colleague Sue Cubbin, this is my first report. This year the Essex Sound and Video Archive has been completing its HLF-funded ‘Making of Modern Essex’ project. The audio and visual exhibition created as part of the project has now been shown at three large museums in Essex: Chelmsford, Southend and Colchester. The exhibition will continue to have a life after the project as it is booked to tour other museums and libraries throughout the county until October 2008.

We are currently providing training and support for two video projects in the Southend area, both funded by the HLF’s Young Roots scheme. The first is ‘Re-Form: Challenging the Essex Image’ in which young people will be interviewing people from Southend about changes experienced in the town. The second is ‘Breaking the Rules’ in which young people will be investigating youth groups and subcultures in the past.

We have received a number of significant collections of recordings. For instance: recordings used by Anne Cowlin to compile Halcyon Days of Cod Liver Oil: An Oral History of Great Waltham in the 20th Century; over one hundred recordings with accompanying transcripts, biographical notes and pictures relating to Witham; the recordings of the ‘Changing Perceptions’ project completed by Epping Forest District Museum; and sound recordings, photographs and written reminiscences collected by Bawdsey Radar Group's oral history project called ‘Shout & Whisper’.

We are also pleased to have received the book Sea Change: Wivenhoe Remembered by Paul Thompson with Teresa Crompton, Brenda Corti, Don Smith and Janet Turner (Tempus, 2006).

We continue to lend recording equipment to groups and individuals wishing to make oral history recordings. We were fortunate enough this year to be able to update our equipment, so we now have three digital recorders which can be loaned.

We have received requests for advice from a number of people planning projects outside Essex. Most of these have been from groups seeking funding from the HLF and my impression is that they have been advised by the HLF to talk to us. Two of these potential projects are large landscape conservation projects which will include an oral history element. Enquirers are usually looking for advice on equipment, training in interview techniques and a permanent home for recordings at the conclusion of their project.

Martin Astell