Forty Years On e-newsletter Issue 5 July 2013.pdf (1.55 mb) - Vivacity

FortyYearsOnNewsletterIssue 5 - July 2013@FortyYearsOn“So informative. Knowing it was backedby interviews with those who lived, madeit so poignant and made me feel I wasgetting the inside story.“ Parkway Dreamsaudience member“Parkway Dreams surpassed all myexpectations.” Wyndham Thomas CBE,former General Manager, PDCWyndham Thomas CBE and family with the cast of Parkway DreamsForty Years On is an archive, oral history and theatre project run in partnership by Eastern Angles and Vivacity

WelcomeAs we now enter the final phases of Forty YearsOn, volunteers have been working like busy beeson both the PDC catalogue and the oral historyarchive, while staff have been using the material tocreate our dazzling documentary drama, ParkwayDreams, a commemorative booklet and to inspireour big exhibition taking place October-Decemberat Peterborough Museum.Some of you may already be aware that I will begoing on maternity leave from July. However, thereContact the teamFrom Project OfficerTina BramhillFYO main office number 01733 864298is still plenty more work to doand Beverley will be leadingthe team as they continueto use the material to createeducational resources and to put the finishingtouches to the archives ensuring that this valuableinformation will be fully available from Spring 2014.Thank you for all your time and support so far, wehope you will continue to support us until the project’scompletion and beyond.NEW FYO Project OfficerBeverley JonesInterested in being anoral history interviewee?Contact 01733 864632 oremail beverley.jones@vivacity-peterborough.comArchivist - Richard HuntFor queries about thePDC archive or any otherrecords held by Vivacity’sLocal Studies and ArchivesService contact01733 864160.PRC PodcastsLevel 2 students at Peterborough Regional College’sMedia and Journalism Centre took inspiration fromForty Years On to create their own podcasts about howlife has changed in the last forty years.Subjects explored included cinemas, leisure facilities,fashion and shopping as well as schools andeducation.This was the first time most had worked with audioand students undertook their own interviews with localresidents to explore topics further.It was great to see all the students engaging with localhistory, but particular congratulations to Nick and Irinawho won Parkway Dreams tickets for their efforts!You can listen to some of the podcasts on the FYOpage at www.vivacity-peterborough.com www.vivacity-peterborough.com www.easternangles.co.uk

CataloguingSpring is traditionally ourquietest period in theArchives, as many ofour customers take theirholidays before the summerrush. But this year FortyYears On has meant that theArchives are just as busyas ever. To date, our CALMvolunteers have enteredover 2,600 records intoour online cataloguing system, our newspaperindexers have completed their listing of all thereferences to the PDC in the PeterboroughStandard, and our ‘unique reference creators’have numbered up around 125,000 documents.An extraordinary achievement! The Head ofMuseums, Libraries and Archives has promisedcake to the group which number the 150,000 thdocument and I’m sure that can’t be far off!A small group of volunteers have now startedcataloguing some of the PDC maps and plans.These are huge rolled bundles of documentsand show vividly how the PDC designedhousing estates, going from fields through tobricks and mortar. I don’t think we appreciatedat the start of the project how many maps wehad in the collection, but there looks to be manyhundreds of them.Graham Wade is one of our stalwart volunteers,having been involved with FYO since the start ofthe project. Graham offered, in addition to his workreferencing the collection, to catalogue the PDCphotographs for us. Thousands of images later hehas completed the main part of the collection – nomean feat! – and is now working on the negatives.As so many people ask us for images of parts ofPeterborough being constructed, having Graham’slist will be invaluable in the future.Your dream houseDid you make it along to our ‘Design your DreamHouse’ session back in April? Aimed at childrenbetween eight and twelve, we introduced them tothe idea of building a New Town and how the PDCplanned the homes of the future. Our buddingarchitects then had thechance to create theirdream room out of shoeboxes and recycled items.In a frenzy of cutting andsticking we saw someamazing designs, withdecorative ceiling lights,bunk beds and even ahot tub in some rooms!www.vivacity-peterborough.comwww.easternangles.co.uk

Oral historyThe volunteer interviewers havebeen busy and between them theyhave conducted 149 interviews.The interviews cover a time spanof over 60 yearsand we havespoken to peoplewho relocatedto Peterboroughfrom variouslocations in theUK, including London, Newcastleand Scotland.Interviewees come forward for manydifferent reasons to tell their storyand usually find the experiencevery enjoyable.“I wanted to represent the peoplewho came to Paston in the early 70s.We had our own special problemsmoving to a New Town: we had toform a resident association to getthings, the doctors, phone boxes,bus routes...” Anne Steward, FYOinterviewee.ved for futWhat’s yourstory?“We must preservelocal history for thefuture.” Gordon Low,FYO intervieweeWe are keen to talk to people who arrived in theUK from overseas, in particular from the EU,South Africa, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Iraqduring the 1990s and 2000s.More recently we have interviewedthose that have migrated fromaround the globe such as, Uganda,Jamaica, Afghanistan, Poland, andPakistan.my home in England.”Almas Ladha, FYOinterviewee.“Because I am fromUganda, I wantedpeople to knowwe came here andsettled and I madeThe interviews alsoprovide an excellentprimary source formembers of the publicto discover more aboutPeterborough’s social history asone interviewee explains:“I thought that my views wouldprovide a useful oral record forfuture researchers.” Toby Wood,FYO interviewee.Each interviewee receives an audiocopy of their story which ensuresthat their family history is preservedfor. future generations.Our team of transcribers andproofreaders have also been busytyping up thousands of pages,summarising interviews andchecking over the transcripts sothat they will be available for use inSpring 2014.“I remembered alot of things thatI had forgotten.”Joan Thomas, FYOintervieweeThanks to ourvolunteers, visitorsto Local Studiesand Archives atP e t e r b o r o u g hCentral Library willbe able to listen tosnippets of audio, identify interviewsof interest via summaries and readentire transcripts. This will leaveresearchers and local residentswith a valuable resource for manyyears to come.We would also like to add to our collectionof stories from people who migrated fromPakistan, Bangladesh, the Caribbean and theCommonwealth countries in the 60s, 70s and80s.During this period Peterborough experienced anincrease in its population as peolple moved to the cityfor housing and employment opportunities and wewould like the archive material to reflect these diversecommunities and their stories.If you, or someone you know, migrated to Peterboroughand would like to share your story contact beverley.jones@vivacity-peterborough.com or call 01733864632. www.vivacity-peterborough.com www.easternangles.co.uk

Aneta Weigelt’s story shows just what can beachieved with hard work and determination...“I was born in 1980 in Poland: I left in October 2005.I’d just completed university (I’d got a masters degree)and I wanted to work in my profession. I didn’t eventry to find a job as a teacher in Poland. I had somepractice for a few months, and that’s it really… So Iwent to Scotland, to Fort William, and I spent one yearthere.“I was going by coach, 37 hours from Poland. Iremember I was exhausted; it was so tiring and somany hours in a bus with all immigrants going to work.I didn’t think, ‘I’m going to stay [in the UK] and live’ -now it will be nearly eight years.“I looked through the window and I looked at thelandscapes, and I realised that it’s the same, nothingdifferent to be honest. When I came to Scotland I sawall beautiful mountains and then I realised that it’ssomething special and I am in a completely differentplace. For me it was like a dream. It was somethingspecial and lovely. And I had a completely differentimpression when I came to England, when everythingwas just flat, dark, nearly everything the same colour…It was the winter, so maybe that’s why I had thisimpression… but I wasn’t in love in England when Icame here [laughs].“I decided that I like this country, especially Scottishpeople, but because I didn’t work in my professionit was very difficult for me to get a job in a school. Iused to work in a hotel, as a housekeeper, after thatI worked in a bakery; I did various jobs, they were allseasonal. So my friends said, ‘Why don’t you cometo Peterborough? There’s plenty of immigrants andplenty of schools, and maybe you can try to get a jobas a teaching assistant.’“My partner knew that my profession is very importantfor me, and he knew what qualifications I’ve got, and Ididn’t want to waste it, waste my time, so we both decidedto leave Fort William and come to Peterborough. So itwas in December 2006 when we came here.“I was hoping to find a better job. I wanted to work as ateacher and do something what I love. I always wantedto be a teacher, even when I was a very little girl… Atthe beginning I remember that it wasn’t easy, we livedwith our friends, and we couldn’t find a job for a long,long time, and me and my partner did various jobs insome warehouses or even in factory.“After two or nearly three years, finally I found a job ina school. But I had to wait a little bit for it. And I knewthat I had to learn the language first, it was somethingto do step by step. But I was quite positively thinkingabout the city and what I can achieve here.“In 2009 I became head teacher of [the Polish Saturday]School. […] At that time the school was at the Polish clubin Stanground. We had an access to three classrooms,and very very small library. I went to the City Councilto get some help, and finally we managed to find anew location and it was at Thomas Deacon Academy.In October 2009 we opened a new school - it was likeopening a new school despite it existing from 1951.In the Polish club we had about 40 students on thelist, but when we moved to TDA we had over 200 andone year later we had 330. After we moved to St JohnFisher School our number of students increased up toover 500.“My school is a place where people meet, when theymake some friends. At the moment we’ve got lessonsfor children. We’ve got 504 students; we rent 27 roomsat St John Fisher School. The youngest children arethree years old, and the oldest one is 19, so we’vegot nursery, primary school and high school. It’s acomplementary school, so we teach children Polishlanguage and grammar, history and geography ofPoland. We also have some music lessons, and afterschool clubs. We would like to do something for ourparents, and we’re thinking about providing Englishlessons, or some after school clubs but it’s somethingon our list to do in the future.”www.vivacity-peterborough.comwww.easternangles.co.uk

Parkway DreamsOver the past few months,Eastern Angles and the staff,volunteers and intervieweesinvolved in the Forty Years Onproject have had the wordsParkway Dreams at the forefrontof our minds.For weeks and weeks we’ve poredover draft scripts, set designsand posterimages,contemplatedcostumes and“A great evening mixingfacts, humour, historyand nostalgia. Excellentcast, great music and veryinnovative. From an oldPeterborian, well done!”leaflet copy,anguishedover venuebookings andaudio visualeffects, rehearsed lines and dancemoves, given radio and newspaperinterviews, filmed trailers, soldtickets and finally performedthe ground-breaking two-hourdocumentary musical a total of 23times in front of audiences of allages from Ortongate to Brentwood.In fact, having lived and breathedthe production for so long it’s hardto believe there’s anyone that didn’thear about our ‘New Town musical’inspired by the DevelopmentCorporation’s utopian vision forthe city of Peterborough. But…forthose who didn’t manage to seeParkway Dreams the first timearound, it’s worth rememberingwhere we’ve been and the effectthe play has had.Created by writer Kenneth Emson,composer Simon Egerton anddirector Ivan Cutting, ParkwayDreams was a genuineproduct of the FortyYears On project – itcouldn’t have existedwithout the mountain ofdocumentary materialthat emerged throughthe meetings, interviewsand cataloguing thathas taken place over the last 18months. Opening with a previewperformanceat the KeyTheatre Studioin Peterboroughon Thursday 18 thApril, the castof six talented“A really enjoyablemoving and informativeproduction. It brought backmany memories! Capturedthe essence of the city andnew development. Thankyou so much!”actors wenton to impressaudiences atKen Stimpson Community School,Jack Hunt School and OrmistonBushfieldAcademyfinishing thePeterboroughrun at StJohn’s Hall onMayor’s Walk.But we didn’tstop there!ParkwayDreams thentoured toseven morevenues acrossEast Angliawith a finalemotionalperformancetaking place on 18 th May at EasternAngles’ home base at the Sir JohnMills Theatre in Ipswich. Now, withthe set put to bed, the publicitymaterial archived and the actorsall working onnew projects, thewords ParkwayDreams may havemoved to the backof our minds forthe time being…but they willalways be etchedon our hearts!Here’s what some of the membersof the audience thought of theshow…“Everythis!”Peterborian should watch“Really enjoyed the show. I’m notfrom Peterborough originally butfeel after seeing the show I knowso much more about the city.”“A bit dubious about a musicalabout town planning but I have tosay it was riveting! Well written,produced, acted and researched –a hearty thank you to all involved!” www.vivacity-peterborough.com www.easternangles.co.uk

So the two burning questions withParkway Dreams were - wouldthe story of the PeterboroughDevelopment Corporation beremotely entertaining to anybodyand, even if it was would it haveany chance with audiencesoutside Peterborough?The answer to the first questionwas pretty immediate as wolfwhistles rained down on the cast on openingnight and standing ovations followed at the last venue.And of course when those mentioned in the play, likeWyndham Thomas and Charles Swift, turned up tocongratulate the company and authenticate our actors’performances of their roles.And then, when we moved outside the city, once againwe got fantastic reviews and responses as the universalthemes of the play struck home. People identifiedwith the utopian vision of that era, the changes inattitude to moving to find jobs, the role of the changinggovernments and the switches from right to left andback again. Above all reviewers paid tribute to thefantastic cast, music and unique design that made theshow relevant to such a wide variety of audiences. Butit was the work of our volunteers both in cataloguingand oral history that gave this production its authenticfeel and unique atmosphere. We can’t thank themenough!Ivan Cutting - Director, Parkway DreamsArtistic Director, Eastern AnglesWho else but Eastern Angles could turn a ‘New Town’ archiveinto a musical? And what a tour de force it was too. True tothe stories of the people who had the vision, created and builtthe ‘New Town’ as well as to the thousands of families whorelocated to Peterborough in the seventies and eighties.The documentary musical itself was lively and funny and finallya tear- jerker but what memories and passion it evoked as werelived their lives. A great, pacey production that engaged youthroughout even if you hadn’t been around at the time. What agreat legacy for those who were around at the time!This was a great achievement from a historical perspective as well as for its dramaticeffect. Well done to all of you for your patience, creativity and resilience and tothe Heritage Lottery Fund for their foresight in helping to fund the Forty Years Onproject.Shelagh Smith, Chair of VivacityParkway DreamsA new musical play by Kenneth EmsonStill looking for performers!Contact Eastern Angles formore infoComing soon...Featuring Peterborough’s New Town transformation, purple bell-bottoms,Chopper bikes and the Clangers!April 18th - 27th 2013Ring: 01473 211498Book online: www.easternangles.co.ukDark Earth by Forbes BrambleDirected by Naomi JonesUnmissable theatre at atmospheric Flag Fen!Sept 12 th –15 th & 19 th –22 ndPeterborough community performers join Eastern Angles to tellthis compelling tale of love and loss in the FensTickets £12 Concessions £10 Vivacity pass holders £8Box Office: 01473 211498 Book online: www.easternangles.co.ukwww.vivacity-peterborough.comwww.easternangles.co.uk

MemorabiliawantedKlackers, Chopper bikes, Ker Plunk: Is any of this languagefamiliar to you?Was there a ‘Party Seven’ at your party, was the man in yourlife wearing ‘Brut’ aftershave. Did you hit the dance floor‘Saturday Night Fever’ style, pogo to Punk Rock, dress toimpress Glam Rock or New Romantics style? Were you aNorthern Soul fan; did you dance all night long at the Wirrinaallnighters?We are holding an exhibition at Peterborough Museum laterthis year and are looking for memorabilia from the 1970s and80s to include. We are particularly looking for items that arerelevant to Peterborough for example, toys or games that weremanufactured by Peter Pan Playthings, items that relate toFreemans Factory, Thomas Cook, or any other organisationthat was part of the city’s expansion during those years.Do you have anything that reflects the clothing or socialactivities of that time such as photographs, toys, posters orrecords?If you have an item you wish to loan for the exhibition pleasecontact beverley.jones@vivacity-peterborough.com orcall 01733 864632.We need some New Towns …In the 1960s and 1970s the population of southeast England was predicted to rise by 3.5 millionpeople. Existing housing in big cities such asLondon was cramped and unsanitary.“New Towns were designed to relieve the pressure onLondon. To give people in London the opportunity to getbetter homes, better jobs, better lives outside of Londonbecause they could not achieve those things in London itself,which was over crowded.”David Bath, PDC“We were living in high-rise buildings in Hackney on the 11thfloor and I had two children. You couldn’t let children playdownstairs. I’d never even had a garden. I’d always beenbrought up in flats in London and we didn’t even have abalcony in the flats I grew up in.” Jean Hawkes“When I was a kid we lived in a flat in London with a sharedloo. We didn’t have a bathroom, it was tin bath - had nocentral heating either.” Suzanne Waller“I’d had experience of town planningelsewhere, not as a planner but as an employerof planners if you like and I didn’t like the DraftMaster Plan for Peterborough very much at all.I thought it was much too doctrine and muchtoo rigid, much too strong in an architecturalstructure sense, and that it just didn’t have theflexibility and the fluidity and the adaptabilitythat I felt was necessary and so I didn’t geton all that well with the consultant planners.”Wyndham Thomas, PDC“The original New Towns had been built in open countrybut when it came to Peterborough they realised that they’dgot an existing cathedral city and they just couldn’t ride inrough-shod. So we were the first of the partnership NewTowns. The Development Corporation were far and awaythe important executive arm but nevertheless had to takethe City Council with them and the County. And I had someextremely able chief officers who meshed with Wyndham’schief officers to produce the Masterplan.”Peter Sidebottom, Peterborough City CouncilThe designated area for expansionAn artist’s impression of Henry Wells’ design for Peterborough City Centre“In 1960 there was a study going on called the Wells Study.Henry Wells was looking for areas to expand within theeastern region. Ipswich, along with Peterborough and MiltonKeynes, were areas all looked at. I became very involved andwe pressed for Peterborough to be one of these expandedareas.”Councillor Charles SwiftFortyYearsOnExploring Peterborough’s development since 1968“There had to be a lot of discussion. We had an awful lotof discussions with the department, with the ministry,particularly the late Dick Crossman and Dame Evelyn Sharp,all the civil servants at that particular time.”Councillor Charles Swift“They were very keen to get going and appointed consultantplanners whose task was to draw up a Draft Master Plan.Peterborough’s was drawn up by a town planner named TomHancock who had as his sidekick, John Hawkes. So when Iwas appointed and came in to take up my post, that’s whatI was presented with, a Draft Master Plan already done byHancock Hawkes. They had stipulated a population size; thecity was to grow from 70,000 to 160,000.”Wyndham Thomas, PDCThe Draft Master Plan for PeterboroughPick up your FREE limited edition copy of the Forty Years Onbooklet which is packed full of images, info and oral historyabout Peterborough’s expansion in the 1970s and 1980s.Available in Peterborough Central Library.