Local Studies Awareness
Local Studies Awareness
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An introduction to Tameside's Local Studies and Archives centre.
Text Only Version
Voiceover
Welcome to the reading room of the new Local Studies and Archives Centre. It's attached to the Central Library and was opened in March 2005. There are all sorts of documents here about Tameside's history, from manuscripts to microforms.
The reading room is a comfortable place to study at your own pace about your family and area and to help develop valuable research skills.
Learning about history teaches us more than learning dry facts about the past, it teaches us to evaluate, analyse and present evidence, and about how society works. It can give us a sense of connection with out area and it's past.
Local history is one of the few subjects where amateur studies have the same values as professional ones, and that can give a great sense of achievement.
The history of Tameside proves a big attraction both to local residents and visitors from all over the world. The north west cotton towns have a unique place in the world's industrial development, and they are of great interest to academics from many different countries.
Preserving and collecting historical documents is a crucial job. There can be a conflict between those wanting to use the service now and those looking to preserve for the future. The new building provides perfect temperature and humidity levels for storing paper along with hi-tech fire and burglar alarms.
It's the first purpose built unit in Greater Manchester, providing archive conditions up to British standard.
Some documents need sending away for repair by expert conservationists, but we can do some simple cleaning jobs here. Cataloging and creating indexes are a very important part of the centre's work, because most of our materials are unique to us, but we cant use a catalogue record for elsewhere.
Documents and books are now listed on special software, with other parts of the collection on cards. The next big challenge is transferring all of this information onto the internet.
Staff at the centre also coordinate the sale of local history books in libraries, this raises valuable income to help pay for more photographs for the Tameside Image Archive on our website. That makes the collection accessible to even more people.
Here's how the system works:
Nell Phillips - Senior Library Assistant
We've received a query from a Mr Healy in Ashton-under-Lyne, one of his relatives was killed in the Ashton explosion in 1917, and he wants to do a study of the event for his WEA class project and he's asking us what sources he's got.
Voiceover
We've chosen this example because it illustrates the wide range of sources we may need for a simple enquiry.
There are two types of historical sources, secondary and primary. Secondary are written later about a past event whereas primary are written at the time.
The first step in any study, is to see what's already written about the event, the secondary sources. There's a small collection of secondary sources in each Tameside library, this helps staff with some basic enquiries. For our enquiry there's a very good book about the Ashton explosion written in 1992.
Most secondary sources give basic descriptions of the events but better ones pose and answer questions. John Billings and David Copeland, the authors of this book, wondered why a dangerous explosives factory was allowed to operate in a highly populated area of west Ashton near a gas works. The evidence for their answers is listed in the footnotes of the bibliography. This shows the range of sources they studied before writing the book. These help us assess the reliability of the information and give us clues about where to find more details.
We then move onto primary sources. Most primary sources were designed as a historical record but it had another purpose. Good historians need to know about this purpose and eliminate bias in the material to help them evaluate reliability. Local studies staff can advise readers the best contemporary account of the Ashton explosion was in the papers.
But newspapers exist to make money for the owner and editorial decisions could be influenced by a big advertiser. 19th century newspapers were usually owned by one man or a family. The Reporter was owned by the Andrew family who were liberals and non conformists and their views were reflected in the paper.
The nest step is to check the archives catalogues for manuscript primary sources. The relief fund for victims of the explosion was set up by the mayor so there are some documents amongst the council records. This folder explains how the explosion affected families and includes letters from the injured and bereaved asking for help, along with records of payments
Old Letter
Dear Sir, would you kindly inform me if I'm entitled to any of the funds belonging to the explosion as I was very ill and was home months from my work owing to shock and nervous debility. My daughter was working in Lancaster at the time.
Voiceover
The final source shows us what impact it had on the town, there were problems with petrol rationing, and relief efforts featuring George Formby Sr.
Remember to keep an open mind about evidence. You would expect to find evidence of the explosion in school records, especially in Cockbrook which is on the Stalybridge side of Ashton.
But this log book describes the effect of the tragedy on school attendance.
Log Book
June 15th, on wednesday afternoon there was an explosion at the munitions factory in the west of the town. Had the town been bombarded with artillery the effect would have been identical. The calamity has thrown a great gloom over the town as many people, men, woman and children have lost their lives or their homes. Attendance to a certain extent has been affected by this.
Voiceover
Maps are a vital source of material but you need to know about their background. For example ordinance survey maps emphasise hills and woods because of their military origin, but estate maps focus on boundary lines.
You also have to learn to read maps as there are a mixture of words and images. A good rule is, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Another primary source which gives valuable historic detail is the census. It gives important information about ordinary people who don't often show up in records.
Interest in local and family life has increased in recent years but it's also widened beyond traditional interest in the area's prominent figures. Every day folk are just as interesting and this census tells us about those killed in the Ashton explosion.
This tells us about George Liddiard a yard foreman at the Hooley Hill rubber and chemical works, he was killed in 1917 at the age of 71. In 1901 he was living in Clayton and worked as a yard foreman at another chemical works, Clayton Anline.
He'd come to Manchester from New Mills, and his wife Mary was born in Bacup in Lancashire. It's a snapshot of life in 1901 to use as a start point. His place and date of birth allow us to search for his baptism record and the name of his parents. And dying at 71 showed how people had to work till they were older because there were no pensions.
The census also gives a fascinating insight into the area's social and family structure. There's a wide range of workers, beer house keeper a hatter and more mill employees.
By 1901 population movements had also slowed down. Most people on the street were born in the Ashton or Stalybridge area. For some reason Alfred Upton, a 35 year old stone laborer had moved to Ashton from Wolverhampton perhaps to marry Mary. There are very few written details from the 19th century and to avoid a similar problem in the 20th century we created our own records putting individual memories on tape.
We were one of the pioneers of oral history recording in the country, recording a generation that's died out. many remember the first world war like Mr Hopwood who you've just heard. Beliefs and attitudes have changed dramatically since then as we can see from tapes, letters and diaries.
Photographs can also make a huge impact. These images showing the destruction caused by the explosion and the funeral of the victims showed the scale of the disaster.
The TNT factory was destroyed leaving craters where the explosives had been stored. Huge waste acid drums were thrown 50 yards into the canal and Bridge End mill opposite the factory caught fire and collapsed. About 100 houses were demolished and many other lay unsafe.
All together 46 people died and more than 120 people needed hospital treatment, another 400 suffered minor injuries. Windows were shattered in Dukinfield and some claim to have heard the explosion 20 miles away.
Most of the loose photographs are now available in the webpage and can be seen in all libraries. Another primary source is one we call ephemera, this is fragile disposable material such as leaflets, posters, letters and cards. Very little of this has survived from the 19th and 20th centuries, but unusually there are plenty from the Ashton explosion.
This tells us that a lot of material must have been produced and that it was important to the people who carefully preserved it. Most items were produced to raise money for the relief fund, and many are preserved to show how important they were to the people of Ashton. A perfect example is the sleeping tag for West End School which was accommodated by those left homeless by the explosion. This scrap of cardboard must have meant a lot to the owner to last 88 years, even this is only a copy because the family have kept the original.
These days we rely on library staff to send us their posters and leaflets especially any election papers they may receive at home. Our staff are also good at referring people to other record sources, the obvious place for more information about the Ashton explosion is the National Archives at Kew which used to be called the Public Record Office. We sent the authors of the book on the explosion to Kew and they found evidence of a government enquiry into the tragedy including a mass of detail and the final report copies are now at the Tameside Collection.
Nell's sending to the enquirer a list of sources so he can come and research the topic himself. He'll have to book a microfilm reader before he comes.
All staff are happy to answer general enquiries but the main aim of the service is to allow people to do their own in depth studies. Enjoy.