Thoughts from Lancashire Archives

From the 1940s to the 1980s, Morecambe played host to the Miss Great Britain beauty contests. Seen as a legitimate form of seaside entertainment for three decades, the beauty contests tell us something about the changes in women's lives in the post war decades. Professor Amanda Vickery, talks about the research she has undertaken in the surviving records relating to the contests held at Lancashire Archives and elsewhere. This podcast coincides with the exhibition 'Shaping the Future: Lancashire women's lives, 1950-1980'.

Archivists Kathryn Newman and Vicci McCann are joined in Local and Community History Month by Steve Harrison of the Friends of Winckley Square to talk about the history, redevelopment and renaissance of Preston's iconic Square and inhabitants over time.

Archivists Kathryn Newman and Victoria McCann are joined by Dr Alan Crosby to talk about the history of gardens and all things horticultural in Lancashire, ending with a 'fruity' tale from the church court records!

This is an excerpt from a podcast recorded in September 2021 for Sports Heritage Day. In this clip Dr Peter Holme of the National Football Museum talk about Dick Kerr Ladies and the history of women's football.

190 years ago John King and Joseph Livesey signed the total abstinence pledge thereby starting an unstoppable movement in Preston and Lancashire better known as the temperance movement. Dr Annemarie McAllister of UCLan joins archivists Kathryn Newman and Victoria McCann to talk about the socio-political history of the movement and in particular the impact it had on the lives of women and children. 

To mark Women's History Month, archivists Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman are joined by Professor Amanda Vickery, Queen Mary University, London and Browsholme Archivist, Anna Watson to talk about women's lives in the long eighteenth century in Lancashire, by looking at diaries and court records. From the gentry life of Elizabeth Parker Shackleton to a harrowing example of domestic violence in the Quarter Sessions records, women's voices speak to us down the centuries and through our surviving written heritage.

Lancashire Archives in conversation with Bernard Melling, author of 'Fear in the Time of Covid', Dr Alan Crosby, historian and Catherine Clapperton, a records manager at Lancashire County Council. From plague in the 14th and 17th centuries, Cholera in the 19th century and the Spanish Flu and AIDS in the 20th century, pandemics have spread fear and distress among communities in Britain and Lancashire. How do they compare with our most recent experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and what is the importance of keeping records?

Love them or hate them the mince pie is a Christmas staple! Dr Alan Crosby along with archivists Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman talk about some of the Christmas food traditions and entertainment in Lancashire's history. So put your Christmas hat on, grab a sherry, relax and enjoy this festive podcast.

In this podcast archivists Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman talk to Professor Robert Poole of the University of Central Lancashire about instances of witchcraft accusations held in the Quarter Sessions records at Lancashire Archives, the legend of the Witch of Woodplumpton and the notorious Lancashire Witch Trails of 1612.  

To mark National Sports Heritage Day in the UK, Lancashire Archives talks to Dr Peter Holme of the National Football Museum about some aspects of the history of football, rugby, bowls and cycling, mentioning items from the collections at Lancashire Archives including early court records.

For Heritage Open Days 2021 Lancashire Archives is joined by celebrated local historian, Dr Alan Crosby, who is researching the history of food in Lancashire from the 16th to the 20th centuries. With archivist Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman, Dr Crosby talks about food related archives and the history of food in Lancashire, including a nineteenth century soup kitchen recipe, an eighteenth century bill for a gentry wedding and 'a cup of trembling kangaroo'.

This episode was recorded on 2 September 2021 for the Heritage Open Day theme of 'edible England'. Lancashire Archives is the archive service for the county of Lancashire and preserves and makes available for research, 900 years of Lancashire's written heritage. To find out more about accessing Lancashire County Council's archive service located in Preston visit www.lancashire.gov.uk. To find out more about events taking place for Heritage Open Days visit www.heritageopendays.org.uk.