Jo Bath
Oral History Archivist
Beamish Museum, Regional Resource Centre, Stanley, Co. Durham, DH9 0RG
Telno: 0191 370 4028
Email: jobath@beamish.org.uk

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Sheila Forster
'Durham in Time' Project Worker
Adult & Community Services, Libraries, Learning & Culture, Durham County Council, Rivergreen Centre, Aykley Heads, Durham, DH1 5TY
Telno: 0191 3708811
Email: sheila.forster@durham.gov.uk

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Janette Hilton
Project Director
Living History (North East) Limited, The Regional Oral History Centre, The Old Donnison School, Church Walk, East End, Sunderland SR1 2BN
Telno: 0191 5654835
Email: lhneltd@btconnect.com

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County Durham

Oral history continues to thrive in the North ast thanks mainly to Heritage Lottery funding. In the last twelve months I have been involved in a variety of oral history projects funded by HLF either in an advisory capacity or delivering training.

‘Up and down the Street’ Project - Chester le Street

The Heritage Group of Chester le Street has embarked on a major new project called ‘Up and Down the Street’. The social history of the Front Street over the last 100 years will be explored and a collection of still and video images will be combined with oral testimony collected from the people who worked and shopped Up and Down the Street. In time this will be available to the public through a searchable database using Comma software (http://www.commanet.org/English/Default.htm).

Durham High School for Girls

Durham High School for Girls will celebrate its 115th anniversary in 2009. School librarian, Jacqui Durcan, wishes to mark the occasion by producing a social history of the school using the oral reminiscences of ‘old girls’ who attended the school over the last eighty years.

‘Let us think of tomorrows past’ - Kelloe Community Partnership

This ‘Your Heritage’ project has been established to raise awareness of Kelloe’s heritage and to encourage the local community to become involved in its preservation. A major feature of this project will be an intergenerational oral history project in which the memories of miners and their families will be collected.

Seaton Sluice and Old Hartley Local History Society

As a result of this Heritage Lottery funded project the future of the Grade II listed Watch House building in Seaton Sluice and its unique collection of maritime exhibits has been secured. The collection includes photographic and documentary evidence relating to the activities and social history of the Seaton Sluice Volunteer Lifesaving Company (SSVLC). Part of the grant was used to train the members of the Seaton Sluice and Old Hartley Local History Society in the collection, preservation and presentation of the oral testimonies of the members and families of the SSVLC
(http://www.seaton-sluice.co.uk/).

‘Whose town is it anyway?’ - ARC Stockton

Young Roots is a newly formed theatre group from Stockton-on-Tees. The group is made up of teenagers from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Young Roots has been working with Theatre Cap-a-Pie to create a new performance based on the cultural history of their town. They have combined historical research with intergenerational oral history interviews to highlight the wide variety of settlers who have contributed to the making Stockton
(http://www.arconline.co.uk/news-story.php?id=37).

‘Distinctly Durham’ - Gainford

This project has been designed to culminate in a touring community exhibition that will celebrate the diversity and distinctiveness of County Durham’s heritage. Gainford Local History Society is one of several groups, including one made up of HMP inmates, who will be researching Durham’s history and heritage to discover what sets it apart from other counties. The Gainford group in particular were interested in exploring the use of oral history in their research.

Centenary Celebrations - Annfield Plain Library

Annfield Plain Library is the only Carnegie library left in County Durham and will celebrate its centenary in 2008. A programme of events to mark the occasion will begin in January and continue through to December. A cross-section of people of Annfield Plain will be interviewed to discover what the library means to them and their testimonies will be included in a DVD of still and moving images of Annfield Plain and district which will be distributed in the community throughout the centenary year.

Sheila Forster

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Sunderland - Living History North East

The North East Regional Oral History Centre

Living History North East will officially launch the new Regional Oral History Centre later this year. We have established a centre that can be used to encourage and develop oral history projects throughout the region. LHNE continue to offer guidance, advice, information, and training to other organisations or small community groups embarking on new oral history projects. The centre incorporates a state of the art media facility that will be used to further develop our audio and video projects/training. LHNE continue to work in partnership with Tyne and Wear Archives attempting to digitise some of the 6,000 reel to reels held in their collection. This is a long term piecemeal project. The Regional Oral History Database continues to grow as other organisations recordings are logged onto the system.

The North East Oral History Network

MLA North East has now officially handed over the responsibility for the network to a steering panel currently comprising, Janette Hilton of Living History North East, Jo Bath, Beamish Museum; John Sadler of the DLI and Julie Hawthorn Durham Community Heritage Officer. The panel aim to continue the regular meetings and to review the changing needs in within the north east network. Summaries of other projects in the North East are provided by colleagues below.

Janette Hilton

Building Bridges of Understanding: an interfaith Oral History Project

The Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund financed this project which recorded and documented over 25 interviews of individuals from the six major faiths. This was an intergenerational project that produced a seven banner exhibition; a documentary DVD; and six educational resource boxes. The project was launched from the National Glass Centre and has since been on loan across the region.

'Shipwrights and Singin' Hinnies Project' Northumbria Coalition Against Crime and The Hendon Young People project

In January 2007 the Northumbria Coalition Against Crime and the Hendon Young People's Project started the 'Shipwrights and Singin' Hinnies Project' to research the history of shipbuilding in Sunderland and the impact the industry made on local families. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery through their Young Roots Programme that encourages young people to research their local history. At the end of the project the young people will produce a DVD and book that will be distributed free of charge to the local community.

The research has taken two forms - visits to maritime sites and interviews with former shipyard workers and their families. The young people have been made very welcome at the Sunderland Maritime Heritage Centre, Sunderland Fish Quay and the former Doxford's Shipyard and witnessed first hand the work going at these sites. Interviews with former workers and experts have given the young people an insight into an industry that earned Sunderland the title of ‘the biggest shipbuilding town in the world’. Their DVD will be available in November 2007 and the book published in March 2008.

Andrew Clark

Rediscovering communities & community life through reminiscence

This award-winning user-led project records the memories of older people in North Tyneside in the North East of England and disseminates them on a website to a world wide audience. The project has been running for over five years with support from a variety of grant funders and we have been able to create an archive of over 400 local memories.

Much of the work is undertaken by volunteers and the project offers new opportunities for leisure and learning for older people, encouraging them to make links with others to combat social isolation and enabling them to become more familiar with computers and the internet. Volunteers manage the project, give talks on the material in the collection and contribute to other local history activities in the area.

Recently our reminiscence work in sheltered housing schemes, undertaken in partnership with the GIfTT project, has produced wonderful oral history material, some of which has been published on our website and in booklet and CD format. Collaborative working and a user-led approach has deepened our understanding of contemporary community life and made us realise that ‘community’ means different things to different people, especially where reminiscence is concerned.

Kath Smith
Pip McKever

Beamish Museum

Beamish Museum’s oral history archive has grown at an unprecedented rate this year. We have worked in partnership with Newcastle City Library to ensure survival and cataloguing of their oral history collection (including a notable set of interviews with world war two female shipyard workers), and with the North Pennines AONB Trust to produce and safeguard oral histories of “Haytime Memories”, charting farming practices on the rare upland hay meadows of the Pennines. We have also made a home for the Tyneside life collection of author Jim McGurn, and the oral histories resulting from the Doggarts Project, which in 2005 produced an exhibition on Doggarts department store and its role in the life of Bishop Auckland. More audio material is now available through the Collections Online website, while full access remains available through the Regional Resource Centre.

Jo Bath