Wildrose Arts

Wild Rose Heritage and Arts has completed four projects, ‘Changing Places’, nine interviews of people born in other countries who now live in Hebden Bridge, ‘Generations Talking’, a collection of interviews involving 42 individuals talking about their lives and the area, including younger people discussing their experiences of living here now, thereby creating an archive for the future, a 'Planning Project,' where we completed research on the needs of our audiences and the various activities which could help us develop the dissemination and accessibility of our collection and 'Age to Age,' a project in which we inaugurated inter-generational interviewing, schools developing their own drama performances based on our interviews and guided heritage walks. This project, also, including young people interviews local musicians and skateboarders.

All stories are filed by decade of birth, are fully transcribed and most have a full audio version. We have video clip versions of nearly all interviews though some people did not want to be on video. Over the the time span of each project we will add new interviews and archive material.

Most interviews are one hour long, though some are shorter or longer through recording multiple sessions. All are candid and embody a mixture of personal detail and reflection on change.

We take confidentiality seriously and comply with interviewee wishes regarding use and storage of their interview, such as not using a portrait of them or as in the case of some interviewees, not making public their interview for 25 years. We use consent and release forms for all interviews ensuring interviewee control of material made public. Our aim is to embody best practice. We therefore seek guidance from the Oral History Society, British Library, West Yorkshire Archive Service and others in our procedures and methods.

The work of Wild Rose Heritage and Arts is continually changing and adapting itself to new material gathered, advancing technology and news ways of presentation. Some portraits, audio and video clips are missing. This is either by request of the interviewee’s or because we are re-processing old material.

Some audio tracks have short silences at their beginning before conversation starts.

Although we try to make sure our transcriptions and details about archive material are accurate, there may be mistakes or oversights within the texts or captions and if you find any, please contact us so we can correct them to improve everyone’s enjoyment of our web-site.

We hope you enjoy viewing our collection and if you would like to join in, as a volunteer or participating interviewee, please contact us.