Oral history, much like local history, describes a very broad movement, but for this blog here are some defining characteristics.  The orality of oral history is crucial, so we record the interviews that we make – mostly in audio, but sometimes in video.  The interviewer’s questions are free-flowing, even if they are based around a particular theme or topic, encouraging the narrator to reflect on what they experienced, saw and felt.  The interviews may be recorded for a particular project, but the intent is to archive them, so that the voices and stories live on in the historical record.  Oral historians study not only what was said (or omitted) in an interview, but how it was said and why it might have been described in a particular way.  Finally, the interviewees are asked to specify how their interview can be used, both in the immediate period after it is recorded, and once it is placed in the archive. 

Local historians will be familiar with a wide range of documentary archives, but it is well worth exploring sound archives for what they may also have to offer. Interviews can be a rich source of context in terms of where people lived, the sort of work they did, and the events through which they lived. They may provide detail that is not available in documentary sources – about the processes involved in a particular aspect of work, for instance – or challenge ‘established’ versions of the history of your local area with new or different information. Oral history recordings also capture the accents and dialect of particular localities, and may give you a sense of how people living there in the past spoke. And they can offer insights into how people felt about their experiences - helping us to answer the question ‘What was it like…?’ once we have explored the ‘Who, what, when, where?’ from the documents.

What was it like, for example, to work in a factory, as many people did, in terms of relations with fellow workers, the hierarchy of overlookers or supervisors, and the pressures of ‘piece work’, as well as the nature of the work processes themselves? To get a sense of this, you can hear about some of the effects of a new system of payment for work in the Leicestershire hosiery industry by listening to this clip from the collections of the East Midlands Oral History Archive:

Or what was it like to live as part of a large family in a house designated as a ‘slum’ – a two up, two down, maybe, with thin external walls, no internal water supply or facilities for cooking or washing clothes, and a toilet in the yard shared with other families? This kind of housing was still common in many urban areas in the 1930s, and is often graphically described in Medical Officer of Health reports, along with the hazards it presented to health; but oral histories can bring to life the everyday challenges of living in such conditions. It was ‘an awful way to live…’, as one interviewee said of her childhood in the 1930s, challenging in the process the notion that oral histories are simply nostalgia - an uncritical view of the past from which unpleasant memories have been edited out – rather than a legitimate and valuable historical source.  The British Library’s ‘If Homes Had Ears’ educational resource gives insight into many locations through its 70 audio clips.  Dora Lee describes the East End of London in her girlhood days in the 1930s, and although the area will have changed beyond recognition, what is amazing is that Rinkoff’s bakery is still in business:

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/dora-lee-on-home-cooking-in-londons-east-end   

Many other examples could be given of information and insights that local historians can gain from archival oral history recordings, from rural as well as urban areas – but the same critical analysis does of course need to be applied to them as to documentary sources, avoiding above all the temptation to turn context into fact, or ‘might have’ into ‘would have’.

For local history studies, a researcher may decide to record their own oral histories, and there is excellent advice and training offered by the Oral History Society (of which we are both Trustees) on interview technique, recording technology, ethics, archiving and data protection (www.ohs.org.uk).  As we are still in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic you can also find OHS advice pages on the pros (and cons) of remote interviewing, and information on risk assessments for carrying out in-person interviews.  Access to archived oral histories in local, regional and national archives has been given a major boost through the National Lottery Heritage Fund project ‘Unlocking our Sound Heritage’ spearheaded by the British Library Sound Archive.  The project has digitised thousands of hours of at-risk audio recordings, many of which will now be available for consultation onsite in heritage institutions across the UK, with a great number available online too.  To find interviews relevant to your research check the holdings of the Record Office or local studies library in your area. You can also try searching the Directory of UK Sound Collections (compiled in 2015), along with any sound archives at regional or national level (such as Essex, Norfolk, East Midlands, Scotland); and explore what work has been taking place in the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project at the British Library and its ten hub partners across the UK. 

The possibilities for using oral history within a local history project are plentiful: sound trails, use in websites and talks, short clips enlivened by expert or amateur animation.  For example, in 2018 four young, female black scholars created onsite sound tours of the British Library using the oral history collections, bringing new perspectives to the physical space by amplifying previously little heard voices.  Two of the tours are now available online: https://www.bl.uk/windrush/themes/windrush-sound-tours. .  As part of a project to restore a rail viaduct in the East Midlands, the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct are developing a ‘Voices of Bennerley Viaduct’ project with a local radio station. This will explore the relationship between the viaduct and its local communities, particularly the older generation who worked on or travelled over it:

The listener is often deeply affected by hearing the description, tone, inflection and emotion of the interviewee, and the different viewpoints and memories of speakers can be a great way to show the contested nature of many of our histories.  The use of oral history recordings in public requires all the necessary permissions and copyright paperwork – so we encourage anyone using or recording interviews to look at the Oral History Society legal and ethical advice, and to build relationships with local archives – which we know so many local historians are already adept at fostering. 

This is just a taste of what oral history can offer to local history studies.  We were delighted to speak at a recent BALH webinar and now to contribute to this blog as we think oral historians could definitely learn from the local history community too.  Hopefully this is the start of a deeper conversation. 

Cynthia Brown (trainer and practitioner in oral history, family history and local history) and Mary Stewart (Lead Curator of Oral History at the British Library).

Further links and reading

Oral History Society

Explore the website: www.ohs.org.uk – and do think of joining the Society There is more information and an outline of the benefits of membership at Join Us - Oral History Society (www.ohs.org.uk).  Information about using oral history in schools is here: https://www.ohs.org.uk/for-schools-main-page/.

in 2019 the Oral History journal celebrated 50 years as the voice of history.  Published twice a year for members of the Oral History Society the journal has a significant section entitled ‘Current British Work’ which is a treasure trove of news about local projects dating back decades.  Contributions to this are always welcome and can be sent to cb@cydfx.net. The 50th anniversary celebration edition of the journal is freely available here: https://www.ohs.org.uk/journal/ohj-50/ and back issues can be consulted via Jstor, which is available in many libraries. 

Archives links

Unlocking Our Sound Heritage: https://www.bl.uk/projects/unlocking-our-sound-heritage

Directory of UK Sound Collections: https://www.bl.uk/projects/uk-sound-directory

Oral History at the British Library: www.bl.uk/oralhistory

George Ewart Evans recordings can be accessed via British Library Sounds: https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/George-Ewart-Evans-collection

East Midlands Oral History Archive: https://le.ac.uk/emoha

Further reading

Graham Smith’s short introductory text on oral history gives a window into many of the academic debates and discussions in oral history research  (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/heahistory/elibrary/internal/rg_smith_oralhistory_20111015), as does Lynn Abrams’ Oral History Theory (2nd edition 2016). 

Paul Thompson’s The Voice of the Past is a classic text (4th edition 2017), and the three editions of Rob Perks and Al Thomson’s Oral History Reader (1997, 2006, 2015) are crammed with insightful oral history texts from around the world. 

We have also written about the links between oral history and family history: Brown and Stewart, ‘Exploring encounters between families, their histories and archived oral histories, Archives and Records, 2017. 

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.