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

Oldham Women Mill Workers interview with Mill Worker 8, no date. (L2018/102-8)

Anonymous interviewee recounts the camaraderie in the mill, how the women used the showers there to get ready before they went out for the night.

Oldham Women Mill Workers - Mill Worker 8

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection Ordsall interview with Mrs. Ida McClenahan, 1977. (MSOH/508)

Mrs. McClenahan recalls her membership of the suffragettes and the local Women's Co-operative Guild.

Manchester Studies Oral History - Mrs McClenahan

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection Ordsall interview with Mrs. Ida McClenahan, 1977. (MSOH/508)

Mrs. McClenahan talks more about the free clinic set up for women and recounts how she met Mrs. Frankenburg in person.

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection Ordsall interview with Mrs. Ida McClenahan, 1977. (MSOH/508)

Mrs. McClenahan describes how she would advise women to go to their doctor for safe family planning information and advice; she also talks about the clinic set up in Salford by Una Frankenburg.

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection Ordsall interview with Mrs. Fereday, between 1974 and 1979. (MSOH/510)

Mrs. Fereday talks about traditions surrounding home births and about the role of the local midwife.

Manchester Studies Oral History - Mrs Fereday

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection Ordsall interview with Mrs. Vera Holt, 1977. (MSOH/491)
	
Mrs. Holt	shares an anecdote about her and her mother being accosted by a seaman while walking home one evening.

Manchester Studies Oral History - Mrs Holt

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection interview compilation on Jewish immigration, pawnbroking and poverty with unknown interviewees, between 1974 and 1979. (MSOH/463)
	
Unidentified woman from a History Workshop event sings a song from her childhood about May Day celebrations.

History Workshop - May Day Song

Bolton Oral History Project interview with Respondent 50, 20 October 1981. (BOLTON/50)

Interviewee recites a short verse from memory about giving.

Digitised in 2019 by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage at Archives+. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Bolton Oral History Project Respondent 50

Extract from ‘Another Brick in the Wall' radio drama on Top Twenty, Piccadilly Radio, broadcast 15 February 1982. (PICC/237)

Angie is questioned by Police after being arrested for smashing windows in the Arndale Centre. Copyright Piccadilly Radio.

Piccadilly Radio - Another Brick In The Wall

Sweeney’s Gang with Suzi Quatro, Piccadilly Radio, broadcast in 1983. (PICC2/262)

Suzi Quatro talks about how she has tried to inspire other female performers throughout her career. Copyright Piccadilly Radio.

Sweeney's Gang With Suzi Quatro

Sweeney’s Gang with Sandie Shaw, Piccadilly Radio, broadcast between 1982 and 1983. (PICC/579)

Sandie Shaw winds up Mike Sweeney about why she performed barefoot. Copyright Piccadilly Radio.

Sweeney's Gang With Sandie Shaw

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection interview with Mrs. Taylor, 11 May 1976. (MSOH/117)
 
Mrs. Taylor talks about how she played the role of Mary Brown in the Communist Party mock trial of Mary Brown.

Manchester Studies Oral History - Mrs Taylor

Tameside Oral History Project: Here to Stay interview with Mrs. Lilavati Kotecha, 8 September 2005. (TOHP/38)

Mrs. Kotecha shares her experiences of fleeing Idi Amin in Uganda and starting a new life in the UK, including her memories of World War II.

Tameside Oral History Project: Here To Stay - Mrs Kotecha

Club Cheoil oral history interview with Kathleen Houldsworth, 16 June 1996. (CHEOIL/38)

Musician Kathleen Houldsworth reminisces about her musical family and how she "grew up in the Irish tradition from birth".

Club Cheoil - Kathleen Houldsworth

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

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection Ordsall interview with Mrs. Nora O'Toole, 1977. (MSOH/509)

Mrs. O'Toole recalls her family home remedies and her grandmother’s backyard garden which was used to grow various medicinal herbs.

Manchester Studies Oral History Collection - Mrs O'Toole

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.