The
Individual and Local History
Using
Oral History to Demonstrate and Document
Local Residents’ Experiences of and Contribution to a Community
The area of Moulsecoomb is situated in the North East of Brighton. The
estate was built in stages. South Moulsecoomb was known as the ‘Garden
Suburb’, and was considered a very nice place to live. Ruby Dunn’s
autobiography, Moulsecoomb Days contains an advertisement enticing people
to live there rather than the town. North Moulsecoomb was built as an
estate to house the first world war veterans. Sheila Winter’s family
were allocated a house in Chailey Road because her father qualified.(Moulsecoomb
Memories, Winter, 1998 p.8) More houses were built in East Moulsecoomb
to alleviate the problem of the slums in Brighton. This was part of the
Council’s policy of house clearance, which apparently proved unsatisfactory
with people. (Dunn,1990 p.37)
When
researching local history, oral history is a valid source. Oral history
gives an understanding of the area from a personal viewpoint, from the
voice within and not just from an interpretation of an outsider looking
in on the subject. Until recently the way history was recorded was selective,
covering subjects such as the monarchy or battles. The historian Paul
Thompson says, ‘Even local history was concerned with the hundred
and parish rather than the day-to-day life of the community and the street.’(The
Oral History Reader, 1998, p.22). Local record offices keep documents
such as birth and marriage registers and minutes of council meetings,
but very little personal documents like letters or diaries of working
class men have been preserved. Oral history is ‘as old as history
itself, but with the emergence of the tape-recording movement since the
1940's’ (Plummer, 2001, p.28), oral history can be recorded and
kept as primary source material. These are rich and valuable sources which
validate a person’s experience of and in local history. Again Thompson
states, “Oral history...can give back to the people who made and
experienced history, through their own words, a central place.”(1998,
p.22). Another advantage that Thompson points out is that oral historians
can ‘choose whom to interview and what to ask about’.(1998,
p.24).
I applied this advantage when researching for this essay. I interviewed
a group of residents who are involved in activities within North Moulsecoomb,
namely the ‘St. Georges’ group and Dave Barnard, a community
activist for the past forty years and chairman of MESATA (Moulsecoomb
East Social Activities Tenants Associaton). Dave initially moved to Barcombe
Road in North Moulsecoomb. He was overjoyed at being housed there because
Moulsecoomb was looked upon as a nice place to live in 1963. He joined
the local Residents Association group at the ‘old’ St. Georges
Hall because he had young children felt the area needed more facilities.
I asked of his motivation for getting involved, to which he replied, “I
think it is everybody’s right to participate and make our community
a better place to live. Once you get involved there’s always more
and more.” Dave moved to Goodwood Way in East Moulsecoomb seventeen
years ago where he continued to be active in the community to this present
day. The residents I interviewed at St Georges Hall were Josie Hensby,
Maggie Bonner, Gill Mitchell, Lynn Green and daughter, Kadie (aged 7)
and Russell Endersby the current caretaker of the hall. These locals have
lived in North Moulsecoomb for different lengths of time and have varying
degrees of involvement within the community of North Moulsecoomb. Bearing
in mind what Thompson says about a recording session needing to be mutually
respectful (1998 p.27), with the group I asked open-ended questions and
encouraged everyone to contribute to the ‘discussion’ and
whilst interviewing Dave I asked about key topics and allowed him to speak
them through. With both interviews I started with their early memories
of Moulsecoomb, their involvement with the community and the change they
have seen over the past twenty years.
Early
memories
Russell has lived in Newick Road all his life. Josie moved to North Moulsecoomb
when she was seven years old. Both knew each other when they were children
and spoke of playing out all day and scrumping apples. Russell shared
a humorous account of getting caught on Mr Everit’s fence trying
to get into their garden. ‘Scrumping’ must have been a popular
pastime for the children with the Woolards apple orchard nearby. Sheila
Winter tells a story of being caught by the local policeman who made her
eat them, her punishment being a tummy ache! (Winter, 1998 pp34-35)
Community
Spirit
Josie told of how everyone knew each other, people left their doors unlocked
(not like today), this reflects Sheila Winter’s account in her book
(1998 p.45), and how the community stuck together - there was a real community
spirit. This made me think of the account in Sheila’s book about
when Mrs Tucker had her purse stolen, the community rallied around and
collected money. This event was reported in the local Argus. (Winter,
1998 p.5). The group put this story in context and said that Mrs Tucker
had her purse taken off her whilst visiting her husband’s grave.
It was Josie who went door to door collecting money and ‘phoned
the Argus! I was delighted at this snippet of ‘raw material’.
I could believe this because Josie was in the photograph and she was very
much involved in a door to door consultation that the North Moulsecoomb
Placemaking Group did two years ago about getting CCTV Camera’s
installed in the area.
The
group reported that there has always been ‘community spirit’
in North Moulsecoomb. There have always been collections taken for relatives
of people who have died, this tradition continues to the present day.
Each of the group remarked on the ‘community spirit’. After
having her twins twenty years ago, Josie was rehoused to Whitehawk. She
returned to Moulsecoomb after three weeks. This is home to her and she
is part of a very large family who all live nearby. Lynn moved here five
years ago. Worried at first because of the rumours, she was afraid to
go out but after meeting residents and getting involved at St. Georges
Hall she has made a lot of friends and has come out of her shell. Lynn’s
daughter, Kadie added that she has loads of friends and really likes school.
Maggie also didn’t want to come here, but now she loves it and wouldn’t
want to be anywhere else. Gill used to live on a Neighbouring estate and
was glad to get away because she felt the people looked down on her for
having a large family. She said there is no such feeling in Moulsecoomb
and is happy to live here. Gill added that she feels there is even more
community spirit now than before because people show it more. “In
the olden days you used to go to people for help, now they come to you.”
The Eighties
The ‘old’ St. Georges Hall was a hive of activity in the early
eighties. Ron Henderson painted animals on the walls and the children
made a stage. They had bingo there on Tuesday and Sunday evenings. Pauline
and Mary ran children’s clubs there nearly every evening. Dave Barnard
reported that there were about thirty different clubs meeting around Moulsecoomb,
Associations and Playgroups are to mention a few. The community newspaper,
‘The Mole’ lists the number of activities on the rear page.
Problems with housing emerged in this time period, especially in Birdham
Road where conditions were deteriorating. Dave is passionate about housing
and regularly campaigns for council housing to be improved. He is an advocate
for the people and does what he can to support the community.
In 1987 the tragedy of the ‘Babes in the Woods’ murder’s
occurred in the nearby Wild Park. This event rocked the people of the
Moulsecoomb estate. The St. Georges group testified to the shock of the
event. Parents wouldn’t let their children out to play. Josie claimed,
“It was like a ghost town.” These murders affected people,
especially the lads who found them. Dave didn’t want to dwell on
the event but credited the fact that the media attention highlighted the
problems on the estate, the lack of social amenities and poor housing
conditions.
Dave
Barnard was co-chair of the Moulsecoomb Forum(1985-1990) who met to decide
what would be beneficial on the estate. The forum listed seventeen items
to be addressed (B/420). Over time all these were met. The number one
priority was a health centre, a clinic is now serving the estate and so
is a community leisure centre. The ‘old’ St. Georges Hall
was demolished and re-built in accordance with what the community wanted.
Dave’s achievements also included a boy’s football club. They
trained twice a week and attended Brighton and Hove Albion matches. Two
or three lads are now playing for national teams! Another venture was
a skateboarding club, who organised a marathon to show the authorities
they were serious about getting their own facilities. Copies of supporting
documentation are included with this essay. As Paul Thompson says, “The
interview will provide a means of discovering written documents and photographs...”(Oral
History Reader, 1998, p.24) Dave also played me a taped recording of an
event which the radio station Southern Sound broadcast including an interview
with him.
The nineties to the present day
In the residents’ view St. Georges Hall was underused during the
nineties. There were weekly bingo sessions, and Russell cooked breakfast
for the workmen about three times a week. Josie’s family started
up a social group entitled ‘Mates’ which ran for a while.
Other groups did start up and run for a course of time but it wasn’t
until the introduction of the government’s regeneration initiative,
New Deal for Communities that the Hall became to be so widely used as
it is nowadays. The residents I interviewed spoke very highly of Caron
Patmore, the community development worker employed by ‘New Deal’
, now ‘eb4u’. (East Brighton for You). When they first met
Caron, they told her of their plans to run a youth group at the hall.
Caron loaned them eighty pounds to get started and helped them to fill
out forms for funding a club. Caron also helped Josie fill out forms to
fund Sunday evening bingo. Caron has made an enormous impression on the
group supporting and encouraging them to get involved with various projects.
Maggie has thrown herself wholeheartedly into community involvement. She
runs the Friday night youth club (along with other volunteers), is secretary
of the North Moulsecoomb Placemaking Group, sits on eb4u’s Education
and Employment Steering Group; she’s a member of the Moulsecoomb
Neighbourhood Trust and is training to be a community development worker.
I think she is doing the job already! My experience of working with Maggie
has always been very positive.
Dave
was instrumental in Moulsecoomb being included in the New Deal for Communities
catchment area. Initially only the estate of Whitehawk was to be included
in the government scheme. Dave fought for Moulsecoomb to have a share
of the funding. He attended an important planning meeting and argued for
the people of Moulsecoomb to have equal access to the regeneration opportunities
that were being offered to those in Whitehawk, again stressing the social
problems and poor housing conditions. He managed to get policy written
into the delivery plan of a commitment for houses to be extended. Currently
he is discouraged that this hasn’t materialised yet. Dave’s
opinion of eb4u is that they are too focussed on getting strategies into
place and not tackling the underlying problems, overcrowding for example.
It is also Dave’s opinion that people don’t seem to be as
community minded as before with less fundraising events to organise, he
thinks that people aren’t seen to be pulling together as much as
they did in previous years. This contrasts vividly with the opinions of
the St. George’s group who assert that because of eb4u there are
more people pulling together because of all the things going on, especially
at the hall.
Much
more has been achieved by those mentioned in this essay, and other residents
besides. These interviews have opened up a treasure chest of community
history through the lives of individuals’ which would be fascinating
to explore further. Oral history provides rich material for the historian
in demonstrating individuals’ life experiences. This supports Paul
Thompson’s theory that:
‘Oral history is built around people...it allows heroes...from the
unknown majority of the people. It brings history into, and out of, the
community’ (1998 p. 28).
Bibliography
Dunn,
R. (1990) Moulsecoomb Days, p.37. Brighton, QueenSpark Books
Perks, R & Thomson, A. (1998) The Oral History Reader, pp. 22, 24,
27 & 28. London Routeledge; Chapter 2 The Voice of the Past: Oral
History, second edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press 1988
Plummer,
K (2001) Documents of Life 2 p.28. London, SAGE
Winter,
S. (1998) Moulsecoomb Memories, pp.5, 8, 34, 35 & 45. Brighton, QueenSpark
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