Meet Our Networkers in South East England

Deputy Regional Network Co-ordinator

Padmini Broomfield

An OHS trustee since 2009, I am Deputy Coordinator of the Regional Network and representative for the South East region. As Liaison Trustee I support the Environment and Climate Change Special Interest Group (ECC-SIG). My oral history journey began in the late 1990s at Southampton Oral History Unit with recording the life stories of Asian women, shipyard workers and local communities. Now a freelance consultant, I work with heritage, educational and community organisations on participatory projects that explore the lesser-known stories of people, places and working lives. I also provide training, mentoring and external evaluations for heritage projects. Recent oral history work has involved recording and editing interviews on migration, manufacturing, maritime and regeneration themes to create content for museum displays, audio posts, online exhibitions and publications. I am particularly interested in collaborations where my interviews are interpreted and presented in creative ways to engage and captivate people.

Regional networker

Sheila Jemima

Regional networker

Roger Kitchen

I began recording people’s memories in 1974, using the collected reminiscences as the source for local books. I co-founded Living Archive Milton Keynes (www.livingarchive.org.uk) and was its General Manager from 1992 to 2002 and am currently its Chairman. Living Archive’s basic premise is that everybody has a story to tell. Such stories and other primary source materials have inspired multifarious high-quality artistic, creative and educational activities including large scale musical documentary plays, books, radio and video documentaries, textile projects, exhibitions and websites. I have been an accredited Oral History Society trainer and have taught many tailored introductory courses, as well a courses in an introduction to video recording oral histories and digital sound editing. Over the last few years I have been recording many more interviews on video and using them to produce documentaries, as well as helping others do the same.