Manchester Oral History: Alec Greenhalgh Interviews

This is a collection of oral history interviews conducted in 1988-1989 by Alec Greenhalgh, journalist and broadcaster, mainly with people from Saddleworth. The interviews are mostly with people who were born between the 1890s and the 1920s and they concentrate on childhood experiences, including family life and village life.

The full length interviews are available in the Archives+ search room at Manchester Central Library. The British Library collection reference is UAP001. The local reference is MANOH.

Alec Greenhalgh interviews

Poetry

A female interviewee describes life in Salford Workhouse in 1920. She spent six months there when hard up and pregnant. Describes the hardship and isolation.

Reads a poem she wrote in the workhouse, and breaks down with emotion. Left the workhouse to give birth at Hope Hospital. Extract ends with the start of an anecdote about pea soup.

This is an extract from a full-length interview conducted in 1960 by Paul Graney. It is available at Manchester Central Library (GRANEY/28). Image of Salford Workhouse DPA/1313/61.

Being pregnant in Salford Workhouse, 1920

Walter Riley was born in Brierfield in 1883. He was recorded reciting Lancashire dialect poetry on 5 October 1962, two years before he died.

You can listen to the whole performance at Manchester Central Library.

OH/1232/1

Walter Riley - Two Cocks And A Hen

Walter Riley was born in Brierfield in 1883. He was recorded reciting Lancashire dialect poetry on 5 October 1962, two years before he died.

You can listen to the whole performance at Manchester Central Library.

OH/1232/2

Walter Riley - Let Lasses Alone

Frank Allsopp reads 'The Messiah'. This is a short extract from a life story interview.

This interview is part of a collection of interviews conducted in 1988-1989 by Alec Greenhalgh, journalist and broadcaster, with people across Greater Manchester on childhood, school and early life.

Reference number: MANOH/46

Date of interview: 1989

Copyright: North West Sound Archive

Digitised in 2019 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

'The Messiah' read by Frank Allsop

Frank Allsopp reads 'Ode to Standedge Bull' by Becket Whitehead. This is a short extract from a life story interview.

This interview is part of a collection of interviews conducted in 1988-1989 by Alec Greenhalgh, journalist and broadcaster, with people across Greater Manchester on childhood, school and early life.

Reference number: MANOH/46

Date of interview: 1989

Copyright: North West Sound Archive

Digitised in 2019 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Frank Allsopp reads 'Ode to Standedge Bull'

Alec Greenhalgh interviews Hilda Gibbs who remembers going for rides in a sidecar on her father's motorbike. She describes the open fields in south Manchester and watching biplanes at the aerodrome.

This extract is from an interview in which Hilda remembers her childhood in Hulme, Manchester (1911-1926). She talks about family life and the deaths of her parents. Housing and furnishings, along with hygiene are mentioned. She recalls WWI and the flu epidemic. Leisure time and entertainment also feature.

This interview is part of a collection of interviews conducted in 1988-1989 by Alec Greenhalgh, journalist and broadcaster, with people across Greater Manchester on childhood, school and early life.

Reference number: MANOH/15

Date of interview: 1989

Copyright: North West Sound Archive

Digitised in 2019 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Full interview available at Manchester Central Library

Rural south Manchester by motorbike!

The Greater Manchester Sound Archive is available at Manchester Central Library. The collection includes hundreds of oral histories, radio and music recordings.

You can check the catalogue at http://gmlives.org.uk. If you can't find what you're looking for in the catalogue please email us on archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk.

Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) is an ambitious partnership project led by the British Library and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to address the threat facing the UK’s sound heritage. Sounds held on physical formats risk being lost as the carriers degrade over time and the equipment to play them is no longer produced. The project aims to transform access to and preserve the nation’s sound heritage, to create sustainable centres of excellence in digital audio preservation and to involve new audiences in engaging with their audio heritage in innovative ways.

Archives+ at Manchester Central Library is the hub partner for the North West region, which covers Cumbria, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The hub will digitise around 15,000 recordings on 5,000 cassette and open reels held all over the region. The British Library will archive the digital files and provide access to a proportion of them online. The project will recruit volunteers across the region who will spend time learning how to sort, catalogue and promote the region's sound heritage.

We recognise that from time to time material published online may be in breach of copyright laws, contain sensitive personal data, or include content that may be regarded as obscene or defamatory.  If you are concerned that you have found material on our Soundcloud for which you have not given permission, contravenes privacy laws, is obscene or defamatory, or in terms of copyright law is not covered by a limitation or exception, please contact us at archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk.