Wales Regional Network
Emma Chaplin
39 Downham Road South, Wirral, CH60 5SE
Telno: 0151 3429651/07884254351
Email: emma@emmachaplin.co.uk
Andrew Edwards
Co-director of Welsh Institute for Social & Cultural Affairs
School of History, Welsh History & Archaeology, Bangor University, College Road, Bangor, LL57 2DG
Telno: 01248 382839
Email: a.c.edwards@bangor.ac.uk
Julia Fallon
Head of Centre
Leisure & Events, Cardiff School of Management, UWIC, Colchester Avenue, Cardiff CF23 9XR
Telno: 02920 416322
Email: jfallon@uwic.ac.uk
Beth Thomas
Keeper
Dept. of Social and Cultural History, St. Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff
Telno: 029 2057 3426
Email: Beth.Thomas@museumwales.ac.uk
A number of community groups in North Wales have recently been successful in securing funding for oral history projects. A community group in Llandudno has secured Communities First, Arts Council for Wales and HLF support for a digital storytelling project, ‘The past is always present: work, leisure and sport in Llandudno’. Local volunteers will receive oral history training before conducting a substantial number of interviews, and the testimonies of participants will feature in an exhibition planned for May 2011. The project is being co-ordinated by Jayne Neal. Anyone interested in the project can contact Jayne by e-mail: Jayne.Louise.Neal@conwy.gov.uk. Colwyn Bay heritage group have also secured HLF support for an oral history project .
The group is aiming to record the personal stories and memories of older members of the community. Bangor University will provide local volunteers with the training and skills to conduct interviews which will help encourage communication between different generations in the community. Initially the focus will be on the war and immediate post war years and the impact this had on Colwyn Bay. The testimony collected will be transcribed and will feature in a book that will be developed in 2011. The testimony will also be made available on the group’s website. The project is being co-ordinated by Helen Jackson. Helen can be contacted by e-mail: Helen.Jackson2@conwy.gov.uk
Three students from Bangor University have recently started PhD’s which will make extensive use of oral testimony. Marco Giudici (hipa19@bangor.ac.uk) is working on a project which looks at Italians and Italian communities in Wales after 1945. Cai Parry-Jones (cp6952@bristol.ac.uk) has also started work on a project which focuses on Jews in Wales during the twentieth century. Laura Jane Emmett (l.j.emmett@bangor.ac.uk) will be doing a PhD on women activists in Wales after 1945. Another oral history based project on the decline of slate quarrying communities in north-west Wales will commence in January 2010. All of these projects are being supervised, or co-supervised by Dr Andrew Edwards (a.c.edwards@bangor.ac.uk). Any information relevant to these projects would be gratefully received.
The Moelyci Social and Natural Heritage Project will uncover, record and share the social, agricultural and natural heritage of Moelyci as a traditional Welsh upland farm. Oral history testimony will give a unique insight into the history of Moelyci Farm and its wider context in a slate quarrying area. The recordings will complement other practical aspects of the Moelyci Heritage Project: conservation and recording of valuable Moelyci habitats and a study of how human activity has shaped the land and the nature to be found there; excavation and conservation of archaeological features. These strands will be brought together in the Moelyci Heritage Trail along with a variety of materials and resources for the use and enjoyment of schools, the local community and visitors to Dyffryn Ogwen. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project’s co-ordinator is Frances Smith. Frances can be contacted by phone on 01248 602793, or by e-mail at heritage@moelyci.org. There is also a project website: http://www.moelyci.org
Andrew Edwards
In Wales, this past year has been a mixture of projects coming successfully to fruition and setting the scene for potentially exciting use of oral history in the future. ACLI ENAIP's 'Italian Memories in Wales' project ended its year long exhibition tour of Wales at St Fagans: National History Museum in January. Combined with artefacts from various collections around Wales, the exhibition in Cardiff was launched successfully and enthusiastically in the company of representatives of the Italian-Welsh community. The project's objective was to record and preserve the memories of Italian people who migrated to Wales after the Second World War, and second generation Italians here. People were interviewed about growing up in Italy during the fascist regime and in Pilota fascita postwar years; the journey over to Wales, their hopes, expectations and first impressions on arrival; settling into life in Wales, illustrating various industries such as catering, tinplating and mining, exploring cultural differences and frustrations; their current achievements, cultural and economical contributions to Wales; and how first and second generation Italians relate to their Italian heritage, exploring questions of national identity. The archive of interviews and personal photographs created has been deposited at St. Fagans, Newport Museum an Art Gallery and at ACLI-ENAIP.
During the year, training in oral history techniques was provided to the Tywi a River through Time project and a group from Llanwrtyd who aim to include oral history in the development of a local disused chapel into a heritage centre. Advice was also given to St John Wales on planning a 12-month oral history project whereby cadets would interview older people in care homes in Fochriw, Peblig and Cardiff.
At St Fagans:National History Museum, fieldwork was undertaken to record and video the mussel fishermen of Conwy and the lave netsmen who still fish in the traditional way in the Seven Estuary. We have recently re-erected a historical barn, removed from its original site at Kennextone, Gower to its new location next to Kennextone farmhouse which was already at the museum. Oral testimony of the family living at the farm is now being edited for an a/v presentation which will be projected on the walls of the barn.
The website People's Collection Wales (http://www.peoplescollection.co.uk) was launched by the Welsh Assembly Government at this year's Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale. Together with the National Library of Wales, the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales, Culturenet Cymru and Llafur, the National Museum has been heavily involved in providing content for the new website. Collections and stories on topics ranging from dialect recordings to traditional foods, customs, crafts and the history of the Eisteddfod and Gorsedd were created and uploaded. Now that the website is launched, members of the public will be able to add their own collections of images, audio and video clips, and use the PCW to create their own trails and digital stories. In coming months/years, we hope to further exploit the potential of the website to display more of our archive collections, and to provide greater access to them through downloadable mobile phone media.
Beth Thomas