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North Yorkshire / Wartime Memories of Rural Life 1939 - 1945
Location: North Yorkshire
Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life is a "community" museum run entirely by volunteers. Over 120 volunteers work in shifts to keep the museum open weekdays. The project is a development of an HLF funded First World War project that the Museum undertook recently involving 3000 local people and is a direct result of participants requesting a World War Two project. The aim of the project is to collect and record by interviews or written questionnaires the wealth of wartime memories and experiences of local people within the district of North Ryedale. The project will create an "archive" of oral history recordings, written documentary and photographic material which will provide a lasting record and survey of what living in a rural district was like during WW2. The project will also deliver two "Open Learning Days" for the general public, these will involve further interviews, WW2 displays and costumes. A flyer and leaflet will be produced to promote the project.
Group Name |
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Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life |
| Address |
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Pickering North Yorkshire |
| Project Postcode |
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YO18 8DU |
| Finishing Date |
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30 November 2003 |
| Local Community Involvement / Partnerships: |
The project involved locating, contacting and the digitally recording local residents memories of rural life and the Second World War. Initial publicity involved a BBC Radio York 20 minute magazine programme, which although very interesting did not prompt any response from the community. A list of names from wartime newspaper articles and also from older volunteers at the museum and local contacts was compiled.
We set about locating some of these people through newspaper article, further media coverage and by some willing interviewees.
Contacts ranged from 70 to 99 years, and lived in a wide geographical area of the county. So far we have interview 33 people and recorded 27 interviews. The content of some of the interviews is historically very important and really interesting to listen to. We have home front memories of Pickering, former soldiers, sailors, RAF aircrew and groundcrew.
The museum decided to start its own Oral History Group and sound archive on the back of the LHI funded project and funding was secured for further digital equipment to build on the start made by the LHI grant. Oral History workshops were provided, a code of practice established and copyright documentation put in place. The local community in Pickering have responded well to the idea of the project and it is continuing to grow, at present around 60% of the project objectives have been completed.
One of the main problems encountered has been the vulnerability of the client group, regarding medical problems, illnesses and in some cases death. 4 of the original interview contacts passed away between us contacting them and going to record them. Some people changed their minds about doing the interviews after we had started to record them and we had to respect their decision.
The museum and its volunteers have had to be very proactive to locate the individuals to record as few have actually declined to do the interviews, few also put themselves forward for it. Having lost a number of interviewees in such a short period it has highlighted the importance of doing this type of project now, its the last roll call for some of these people.
Photo attached shows a group photo of 4 British POW's held in what is now part of the Czech Republic, on the far left of the group is Cyril Ellerby a local resident who was captured after being wounded at Dunkirk in 1940. He went on to spend 4 years in captivity and after agreeing to talk to me provided 7.5 very detailed & moving hours of material.
Many of these people we have interviewed have become friends and the contact we provided to some of them is really welcome as some do not have visitors. Many have loaned us photographs and documents to have copied and these have added valuable material to the museum's archives - an added bonus to the project objectives.
We hope to secure funding to run this project and 2 other themes 'Rural Life in Ryedale' and ' Pickering a 20th Century History, over a two year period and aim to interview 500 people over the course of the period. The LHI has given us a wonderful start and base to gather much important written, oral & photographic History material relating to rural Ryedale.
We have had 2 open Oral History days and 4 Wartime Memories Display days at Beck Isle all have been very rewarding and well received. BECK ISLE MUSEUM ORAL HISTORY GROUP & SOUND ARCHIVE will provide a valuable contribution to local history of the district for many future generations to access. Local schools including Ryedale High School are very keen to access the oral recordings and an index will be sent to all local schools of the completed recording list at the close of the 1st stage of the Project. |
| Grants: |
Heritage Lottery Fund: 10,133
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