Oral history exhibition celebrates Truro communities

The Truro Community Oral History Project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), has been a Knowledge Transfer venture between the University of Exeter (Cornwall Campus) and the Truro Historical Project. Dr Kayleigh Milden and Dr Mandy Morris, from the University of Exeter’s History Department on the Cornwall Campus, have been the project researchers and have conducted interviews across Truro’s council estates during 2009 and 2010. Oral histories were recorded with residents both past and present from Malabar, Malpas, Rosedale, Tregurra and Trelander, all of whom made invaluable contributions to the social history of Truro by sharing their stories.

The oral history project has been exploring a number of themes related to life on the estates, including: old Truro, World War Two, work, religion, local festivals and carnivals. Dr Morris said, “People have been extremely generous with their time, memories and hospitality. It has been a great privilege to be allowed into people’s lives to record their stories.”

At the forthcoming oral history exhibition, the public will be able to learn more about the hidden history of Truro’s estates.  The event will also include such novelties as ‘talking chairs’, in which people can take the weight off their feet and listen to recorded excerpts of oral history interviews. The talking chairs will showcase memories such as those of Gladys Tregunna, who recalls how rural the Trelander Estate seemed in its early years.  She said “It was like in the country, because we was surrounded with farms we used to go down the lane if we ran short of milk and buy milk there, it was a real farm, Spargo’s Farm, everybody up here knew them.”   
 
The sense of community on the estates has been an important thread running throughout the oral history project and events such as the Trelander Carnival, are still remembered with fondness.  Barbara Salmon’s niece, Susan Clift, was crowned Trelander Fairy Queen in 1953. She said “We was some proud to think that we put Suzy in for the fairy queen and she came in first. All the neighbours, they all come together and helped one another up there.”

From the interwar period onwards, a number of Truro streets were being demolished by mass housing clearances. Dr Milden explained, “Many families were being re-housed in the new council estates.  Post-war Britain faced the worst housing shortage of the twentieth century, making the need for social housing all the more desperate. Welfare reforms implemented by the newly elected Labour Government put housing policy to the fore. Reverberations of these developments were also apparent in Truro.”

The oral history project has been able to provide a fascinating insight into what life was like for many families in Truro.  Marion Hardy, had lived with her parents and grandparents in Victoria Square prior to moving into a new house on the Malpas Estate in 1952.  She said, “My gran and grandad’s room didn’t have any electricity. It also had a hole that grandad blocked with a bottle because, being next to the butcher’s yard, the vermin could be a problem!”

For those who were granted a council house, experiencing relative luxuries such as indoor bathrooms and electric lighting for the first time is a vivid memory that lives on for many people. Colin Brown moved to the Malabar Estate with his family during the 1950s.  He recalls the childhood wonderment at his brand new home, “Well the fact we had a house which had an indoor toilet, running water, lights and a bath, which is something we’d never had, it was just one of those magical feelings.”

Some interviewees have very a different story of the move to a new council house.  Pat Bolt, who moved from the centre of Truro to Trelander in 1948 said, “Over William Street, we used to have a tin bath in front of the Cornish Range and it was really, really, warm. When we moved up here to Trelander, gosh it was freezing, absolutely freezing. You were in the bath and you’d get out as soon as you could and get dressed as quick as you could, ‘cus there was no heating there at all!”

Dr Milden said “This project has been an important opportunity to engage the wider community in part of Truro’s social history that has been previously untold. Inclusion of the oral histories in the forthcoming exhibition reflects the University of Exeter’s aim to extend the impact of its research beyond the University campus.”

Project recordings will also be archived at the Cornwall Record Office, providing a future resource that will preserve the memories of these very special Truro communities for generations to come.