This collection was created by Macclesfield Museums between 1979 and 2000 on various different formats – 55 compact cassettes, 81 tape reels and 53 minidiscs. The interviews were produced as part of various projects and exhibitions.
There are many interviews with silk textiles workers, local government officials and Macclesfield Town footballers. The later interviews on minidisc were conducted for a project to mark the new millennium in 2000.
Here is Mrs. L. Bethell describing the warping process in Macclefield silk mills (9421/108).
But it wasn’t all work and no play. Here’s Mr and Mrs Moore talking about their courting days and the Chestergate Monkey Run in Macclesfield (9421/4).
Some of the earliest interviews allow us a rare glimpse into Victorian Cheshire. Here’s Martha Ann Wright, (born 1869) remembering food, drink and washing clothes from her childhood in the 1870s (9421/65).
Muriel Oakes reads her poem The Best Town In Cheshire about, you guessed it, Macclesfield! (9421/50)
The full length interviews are available to listen at Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.
You can read the full descriptions online at the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue. The British Library collection reference is UAP046. The local reference is D 9421.