Elizabeth Roberts was a postgraduate student when she undertook her first oral history project, 'Social Life in Barrow and Lancaster, 1870-1925' in the mid-1970s. Later in the same decade, whilst working at Lancaster University, Dr Roberts undertook a second related project, 'Social Life in Preston, 1890-1940'. These archives form one of the most important collections of oral history testimonies collected in the 1970s when oral history was a relatively new form of data collection. They are an important source for the history of working-class life in north-west England. In the 1980s Dr Roberts undertook a third oral history project, working with Dr Lucinda Beier on a project entitled 'Family and Social Life in Barrow, Lancaster and Preston, 1940-1970'. The archives formed the basis for Dr Roberts'ground-breaking work on working-class life in industrial towns, which has been published in various forms, including books and articles.
In total the archive contain 545 tape recordings, questionnaires and transcripts of interviews. The transcripts are all fully indexed by subject and the main indexes can be viewed below:
The following extracts give an indication of the contents of the tapes and transcripts.
They are samples of the material
used in the lectures given by Dr Elizabeth Roberts to students and local and family history groups.
Please note: these extracts are subject to copyright laws and should not be used in writing unless
prior permission has been sought from the Centre for North-West Regional Studies.
Please note: the archive can be used by appointment only.
Tel: 01524 593770, email christine.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
Staff at the Centre for North-West Regional Studies recognised that it was essential that the tapes and typed transcripts created in the 1970s and 1980s were upgraded and digitised. In recent years we have been actively seeking to identify funding to ensure the survival and wider use of the archive. Work began on digitising the reel-to-reel tapes in 2006. This work is being undertaken by staff at the North West Sound Archive at Clitheroe, where the original tapes are now stored. This work is being funded by The Research Support Libraries Programme.
In 2006 the Centre for North-West Regional Studies was awarded a grant from the Lancaster University Friends Programme to have the indexes from the archives digitised. This work is now complete and the indexes are available on this website (see above). A number of the earlier transcripts were also digitised with funding from the Friends' Programme. In the longer term, we hope to obtain funding to have the whole of this valauble archive digitised.
The Lune Valley Architectural Survey was funded by the Manpower Services Commission in 1978. A team of field workers led by Jonathan Ratter under the aegis of Marion McClintock, measured and photographed vernacular buildings in locations along the Lune Valley, including Lancaster, Halton, Caton, Arkholme, Gressingham, Melling and Kirkby Lonsdale, as well as parts of the Fylde and the outskirts of north Yorkshire. The fieldwork was completed and a high quality archive of photographs assembled, backed by a complete set of negatives. Some drawing work was undertaken, but this was piecemeal, relating to the time and talent available, and the written analyses of the sites were not continued after the funding of the project terminated. The photographic collection, now thirty years old, records buildings of historic interest that have been radically altered or subsequently disappeared, and is therefore an archive of growing regional importance.
Tel: 01524 593770, email christine.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
Interviews with c.100 males and females who attended secondary schools in six Lancashire towns: Morecambe, Lancaster, Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and Clitheroe Collected in 1985-6.
Project funded by the Manpower Services Commission
View Subject IndexContents of the archive·
Please note: the archive can be used by appointment only.
Tel: 01524 593770, email christine.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
Copies of all materials were deposited with the Centre for North-West Regional Studies in 1986.
Please note: the archive can be used by appointment only.
Tel: 01524 593770, email christine.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
The archive contains:
Please note: the archive can be used by appointment only.
Tel: 01524 593770, email christine.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
Please note: the archive can be used by appointment only.
Tel: 01524 593770, email christine.wilkinson@lancaster.ac.uk
Contents of the archive·
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Director: Clare Powne Centre Co-ordinator: Dr Sam Riches Centre Administrator: Christine Wilkinson Lancaster University Fylde College Lancaster LA1 4YF United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1524 65201 Direct Line: +44 (0)1524 593770 Extension: 92150/93770 |