Children on the Move:Evacuation in Staffordshire

Professor Maggie AndrewsProfessor of Cultural HistoryUniversity of Worcestermaggie.andrews@worc.ac.uk

Matthew BlakeParticipation and Engagement OfficerStaffordshire Archive Servicematthew.blake@staffordshire.gov.uk

Background to the Project• Record Office had a range of

inquires from family historians who wanted understand theirrelations experience of WW2evacuation in Staffordshire

• Previously two smaller oral history projects by Staffordshire Archives and Museum Service to capture C20 histories before they were lost gave a project template which could be scaled up for this project

• Evacuation was covered on University curriculum, an and MA had written on in relation to history of Wis

Research Process / Activities• HFL funded grant financed

project officer who carried out 90 interviews – importance of high number of interviews to understand multiplicity of experiences of evacuation

• 10 local events to promote the project

• Students from Keele and Staffordshire Universities and local Schools extracted information from school log books, newspapers

Progress of Project• Wider academic research

• Regular 3 monthly meetings between University, Archives, Museum Service, Project Officer share ideas and discuss emerging themes

• Website http://www.childrenonthemove.org.uk/

• Production of a publication with input from University, Record Office and Museum Service

Positive impact on Communities and Individuals• Asked interviewees to

share their histories rather than take them to create our histories

• Positive impact on their lives - clear at the event held for them at NMA

• Books given to every participant every Staffordshire Library and Secondary School

• Travelling Exhibition

• Website and on-going scope to upload histories

A range of Outputs/ Impacts and Uses of Research

• For archives modern history telling a different stories - oral histories and transcripts - used for understanding experience of evacuation to Staffordshire

• 90 transcripts used in U/G assessments and dissertations

• Contributed to academic research, conference papers, journal articles and a book to be completed for Bloomsbury Academic 2014

Benefits to Academic Work • Began to work across, even bridge, categories and boundaries; range of

input in the planning, the discursive style of interviewing, the launch event and book resulted in a project which straddled :

– boundaries of reminiscence work and academic work which interrogates memory and myths in oral history

– categories of history written by, for or about ordinary peoples lives produced a version of peoples history in the best traditions of Raph Samuel and the original History Workshop Movement

• Moved from individual / solitary analysis of ‘documents’ subject to discursive approach – for example through the dialogue in project teams about themes and narrative tropes within the oral histories, something continued in U/G exploration of material

Build on your relationships

• The partnership for academics and local authority organisations can be a rewarding one

• Encourage undergraduate work on the project

• Develop the use of findings/collections by universities

• Develop community engagement

George Cooke and Sydney Cox, reunited after 70 years

What we learnt• The importance of informal and frequent dialogue in planning projects and

running them

• That there is real scope to craft a research project which serves a number of different constituencies - for example we brought together academic research into oral history and reminiscence work

• That time invested in impact work with local archives can actually end up as very time efficient - in practical terms the work done by the project officer undertaking the interviews and work placement students has equated with having a research assistant for two years

• Academic and public sector targets can be met through good project working