Cynthia Brown
Vaughan College, University of Leicester, St Nicholas Circle, Leicester, LE1 4LB
Telno:
Email: cib2@le.ac.uk

---

Christina Raven-Conn
Team Librarian
Local Studies Library, Nottingham Central Library, Angel Row, Nottingham NG1 6HP
Telno: 0115 9152873
Email: Christina.Raven-Conn@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

---

Derbyshire

I have not been active in any major projects this year so I have asked the Local Studies Librarian for the county to submit this personal report on my behalf.

Judy Kingscott

For Derbyshire’s libraries oral history has again been an important part of our activities, with the Ashover Recording Project expanding to include Clay Cross. Readings from the Clay Cross recordings at the library brought a hugely enthusiastic response and we hope to publish a booklet of local memories next year. This year’s publication project has been a book of farming memories from the area between Matlock and Chesterfield. ‘Milk, Muck and Memories’ should be in the bookshops by November 2007.

We have created a presentation using extracts from the Ashover recordings, entitled ‘Life in a village’; it is proving to be popular with local groups. It is interesting to discover that the memories are evocative even for people who do not know the village itself. For example a Welsh woman told me recently they had transported her back to her childhood on her grandmother’s hill farm.

In March 2006 we made a long tape recording of Horace Kirk, a man from Cromford, then in his 90s. We were greatly touched to receive a telephone call from his daughter recently. She told us he had died and she was so very grateful the tapes had been made. She had been trying to persuade him to do it for 20 years and they are now very precious to her. She had talked to one of his friends who had come to the funeral and realised that he too had a wonderful story to tell (he worked in the lead mining industry), and has put him in touch with us. We plan to record his life story shortly.

In terms of donations and publications there has not been a lot. Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields by David Bell (Countryside Books 2006 ISBN 978 1 84674 003 9 price £7.99) is a well-produced and readable collection of oral memories.
We also had a donation of a DVD of the war memories of a Sherwood Forester, Bernard Ellis of Riddings (1911-1985), together with a folder of transcripts and photographs. This was produced and donated by his son Ronald Ellis.

Ruth Gordon

---

Leicestershire & Rutland

The Media Archive for Central England (MACE) is now sharing office space with the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) at the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester. MACE is the recognised body responsible for collecting, preserving and making accessible the moving image heritage of the East and West Midlands, and was previously based at the University of Nottingham. Have a look at the MACE website at http://www.macearchive.org.uk/Home.html for more information.

This arrangement enables EMOHA to work more closely with MACE to make the audio-visual heritage of Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands region more accessible to the public. A joint one day event was held in September 2007 to explore Leicester’s history since 1918, covering subjects such as the Leicester pageant of 1932, the Second World War, the post war redevelopment of Leicester, and more recent events such as migration into the City. Recorded memories in the EMOHA collections stretch back to the late 19th century, while the earliest film of Leicester in MACE’s collections dates from 1912.

The content of the Leicestershire Villages website has been considerably extended over the past year with the addition of new extracts from oral histories at:
http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/community/leicsvillages.html.

The EMOHA website is also hosting content from the National Forest LANDShapes project, which was completed in 2006, and the East Midlands Economic Network’s Preserving Asian Heritage project.

Thirty six recordings and transcripts from LANDShapes can be accessed by clicking the following link.

The Preserving Asian Heritage tells the story of the Asian Diaspora from Uganda, and their arrival in the UK and Leicester in particular. It does so through an oral history DVD, an exhibition in partnership with Leicester Museum Services and the video and photo clips available from the following link.

In September 2007 De Montfort University hosted a symposium as part of the Writing British Asian Cities AHRC project, with contributions on oral history from Cynthia Brown, Co-ordinator of the Oral History Society Regional Network, and Colin Hyde of EMOHA. Further details of the project can be accessed at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/brasian/leicester.htm.

The Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) has established a project based on the National Diving Centre at Stoney Cove Quarry, Stoney Stanton, Leicestershire. This will look at the various aspects of re-use of quarries as dive centres once they are flooded. One of the aims of the project is to examine the effects on the local population with regard to historic employment in a working quarry, the effects of its closure and subsequent re-use as a dive centre. The contact for this is Ian Barefoot, Project Officer, 'Diving Into History', www.nasportsmouth.org.uk , 02392-818419, 07876-355121.

Leicestershire County Council's Community Heritage Initiative, which conserves and documents the county's natural heritage, is embarking on a programme of interviews with natural historians, including collectors and those involved in nature conservation and biological recording. The aim is to get a balanced picture of natural history studies from practitioners in the post-World War II period, and to capture some of the personal experience and insights that have traditionally been excluded from the 'scientific' recording of natural history. The interviews will be conducted in partnership with EMOHA, and placed in its archive. It is also intended to transcribe parts of the interviews relevant to the Council's natural history collections, and to keep the transcripts alongside the specimens.

Cynthia Brown

---

Nottinghamshire

Although I have not been involved personally, there are currently many local history societies in Nottinghamshire recording oral history as a part of their projects. The following projects are just a sample of what is currently happening: Pancake Hill project, East Bridgford (the possible site of a motte and bailey castle); Lambley Historic Heritage Project; Warsop Vale Village: a history of the village and Warsop colliery from 1900 to the present day.

As part of my work in the Local Studies section of Nottingham Central Library, I am able to support local projects such as those mentioned, by the loan of equipment and providing advice. Unfortunately the equipment we have available to loan out is a little out of date as it comprises of minidisc recorders, which have obviously been superseded now. So if the group are bidding for funds for their projects I will advise them to include funding for more up to date equipment in their bid. However some still opt to use the minidisc recorders. Two other current project groups that have borrowed library equipment are the Hucknall Heritage Archive project, and the ‘History of Tollerton Airfield from inception to the present’.

The Rediscovering the lost village of Greasley project has now been completed and CD copies of the oral history recordings have been given to the Local Studies library. I believe that they may create a DVD, a copy of which I hope they will also donate to the library.

The Nottinghamshire Oral History Collection, stored in Nottingham Local Studies library, continues to be accessed on a regular basis by students and readers, either at the library or by using the loan system. Examples of this use are as follows:

• Recordings showing the range of jobs and industries within Nottingham were recently used at the library with a class of teenagers for a school project.
• The recordings about DH Lawrence, of interviews with his elder brother George and his niece, continue to be used in exhibitions about the writer.
• Transcripts of the oral history collection recordings continue to be used for research and also in publications, especially those that relate to the lace industry.

So, there is a lot of oral history being created currently around Nottinghamshire and that which has been created and archived already is also being accessed and used too.

Christina Raven-Conn