Oral History - guide to resources: South West

The Exmoor Oral History Archive holds the complete audio recordings of 78 life story interviews conducted with a wide variety of individuals who have lived and worked on the moor. The website is intended as an introduction to this collection, which is housed at the Somerset Heritage Centre. Short audio extracts from each of the interviews are available online, and are searchable by person, place or via a thematic index.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; community; education

This site contains audio files and transcripts of complete oral history interviews that were contributed by the public about their everyday experiences of life in the South West of England. The interviews are searchable by location or browsable under six subject areas, which are further divided by sub-topic. The subject areas are farming, the war, social activities, places, local matters and rural industries.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; community; music; WWII

British Library Sound has made available online the complete audio recordings of 34 interviews conducted from 1994 to 1997 by Dr David Tyrrell with those who worked at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury from 1957 to 1990. They are accessible to all Higher and Further Education institutions.

Topics: Science & Medicine; Work

Keywords: medicine; science

The Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture holds a large number of recordings relating to dialect and folk life dating back to the 1950s. There are recordings related to most English counties, as well as Scotland, Wales and Ireland. They cover a wide variety of subjects, including community, society, economics, industrial relations, politics, history, customs and beliefs, traditional medicine, traditional narratives, children's traditions, traditional music, song, dance and drama, as well as traditional crafts, work techniques and material culture. 16 audio extracts from the archives are available to listen to online. The online selection aims to be representative of the range of holdings available at the archive in Leeds.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore

Keywords: community; craft; dance; language; music; politics; songs

This website provides online access to ten extracts from oral history interviews recorded between 2001 and 2008 about life and work on Dartmoor. The complete recordings have been fully transcribed and archived in full onto CDs, which can be listened to at the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s High Moorland Visitor Centre in Princetown, and various other information centres, museums and libraries throughout Dartmoor. They are also available for sale through the website’s online shop.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; community; housing; industry; tourism; WWII

In 2000-2003, the Feminist Archive South conducted a large oral history project that collected the personal memories of women who were involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Bristol. Visit this blog to find out more about the project and download excerpts and summaries from the interviews.

Topics: People; Politics & Government

Keywords: feminism; politics; women

This archive consists of over 500 recordings of Somerset Life made since the 1970s by local historian Ann Heeley and a variety of other individuals and local history groups. A short audio clip from each recording is available to download from the website. The complete recordings are available to listen to at the Somerset Heritage Centre in Taunton or the Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore; People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; community; WWI; WWII