To celebrate International Women’s Day 2020 the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project has put together a playlist of oral histories, interviews, poetry and drama featuring women sharing their stories.

The clips are from a number of different sound archive collections held across Greater Manchester. Curated by UOSH Cataloguing Manager Vicki Caren.

Women’s Voices, Women’s Lives

Memories of sport from around the North West, digitised 2019-2021 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage at Manchester Central Library.

Sporting Memories

North West Film Archive interview with Mr.  Gow, 27 September 1978 (NWFA/19).
 
Interviewee’s wife, Dame Wendy Hiller, shares her recollections of making a film about scouts, featuring Baden-Powell in the 1930s.

North West Film Archive - Mr And Mrs Gow

North West Film Archive interview with Mrs. Knott, 19 November 1987 (NWFA/27).
 
Mrs. Knott recalls working as trainee projectionist at the Grove Cinema in Hazel Grove in the 1930s. She started her career as an usherette aged just 14 and would go on to become the first female projectionist in Stockport.

North West Film Archive - Mrs Knott

Voice in the Crowd interview with a ‘flapper’, BBC Radio Manchester, broadcast 13 January 1973 (RMAN/1198).

Older interviewee recalls some of the pranks she and her friends played when they were young flappers. Copyright BBC.

Voice In The Crowd - Flapper

Voice in the Crowd interview with a ‘woman soccer fan’, BBC Radio Manchester, broadcast 27 April 1974 (RMAN/1141).

Long standing Manchester United football fan responds to comments about football and femininity. Copyright BBC.

Voice In The Crowd - Woman Soccer Fan

Voice in the Crowd interview with a ‘trapeze artist’, Radio Manchester, broadcast 23 September 1972 (RMAN/1140).

Trapeze artist talks about how she wanted to join the circus when she was aged just 14. Copyright BBC.

Voice In The Crowd - Trapeze Artist

This extract is from an interview in which Annie Brookes recalls supporting Witton FC from Northwich, Cheshire. Annie describes helping prepare their ground, using a pig's bladder as football as child, working at ICI during World War 2, playing football at Bolton Ladies. Annie also describes playing for England against Scotland, compares the games of then and now. Annie mentions playing against Dick Kerr's ladies of Preston.

Reference number: OH/801

Digitised from cassette in 2016 by AMR Studios, Hyde.

Full interview available at Archives+, Manchester Central Library.

Annie Brookes remembers playing football with a pig's bladder

James Bradbury, born 1905, remembers his cycling days and starting up the Horwich Wheelers Cycling Club with friends.

Bolton Oral History Project interview with Mr James Bradbury, 4 November 1981. (BOLTONOH/58).

Digitised in 2020 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Full interview recording available at Bolton History Centre.

James Bradbury on cycling with the Bolton Wheelers club

Irene Stanley remembers being part of the 'Water Babies', a group of young girls who did syncronised swimming at Victoria Baths in Manchester.

Interview conducted by the Friends of Victoria Baths. Interview held at Manchester Central Library (ref: OH/1551).

Digitised in 2020 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Water babies synchronised swimming club at Victoria Baths

Olympic wrestler Albert Aspen talks about training, bodybuilding and weightlifting, exhibitions at parks and audience involvement.

Interview conducted by the North West Sound Archive. Interview held at Manchester Central Library (ref: OH/1666).

Digitised in 2020 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Olympic wrestler Albert Aspen talks about his wrestling life

Phyllis Walters remembers learning to swim at Victoria Baths in Manchester.

Interview conducted by the Friends of Victoria Baths. Interview held at Manchester Central Library (ref: OH/1501).

Digitised in 2020 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Learning to swim at Victoria Baths

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.