Mrs Thatcher's Generation

Whatever your politics, you will not have been able to ignore the death of Margaret Thatcher, a woman we all know something about. Whether through direct experience, or through the stories which have been published over the past weeks, we all know something of the life, work and achievements of this country's first woman Prime Minister.

Mrs Thatcher's generation? The Class of 1949 at Newton Park

I can see many parallels between women like Margaret Thatcher and the generations of former staff and students we have interviewed. These interviewees are predominantly women, as in the past we produced mostly women teachers. And because these women trained to be teachers, they had careers, some long, some short.  Some married, some had children. Most continued to work to some degree or another. They are the generations who grew up in the shadow of war, who attained a certain standard of living, promised in the aftermath of the thirties and forties in Britain. This cultural background coloured their opinions, their upbringing and their education, in a way which we struggle to understand today. 

1948: A student attends an interview with Miss Dawson, accompanied by her parents (and younger sister?) . Newton Park was not ready for use until 1949, so may only have been visited for the interview and annual Commemoration Day in June.

It seems to me that people then got on with things in a different way. Instead of fussing about things, you put your head down and worked hard, since, by contrast to wartime conditions, life was a good deal better. The privations of their youth (wartime restrictions and so on) coloured their future lives. My generation ridiculed this tendency; we certainly didn't understand it.

During the oral history interviews, I've been ready to hear about issues of feminism, of equal rights, and of unfair treatment towards working women. Although on one hand it seems a little disappointing when these things are absent, it also makes me feel humble to know that in the 1950s and 1960s, you proved yourself by simply getting out there and getting on with it. The only 'complaint' was around the firm expectation that a woman teacher should wear a skirt!

Sue, at Wellow Station on her way to teaching practice, early 1960s.
(Photo: S.Tewson)

I myself come from a family of similarly strong women, who ran businesses with their families, and tackled any tasks which happened to need doing. I'm not sure if my feisty grandmother would have described herself as a feminist (or whatever the term would have been for her generation) but she certainly expected people to work hard and make a difference to their lives - the difference being dependent on the amount of hard work one was willing to put in. This attitude, born of a particular time and place, is perhaps now passing from our culture (discuss?!)

Famous people like Margaret Thatcher will have their stories told many times. The history books will be filled with details, opinions and analysis of the part they played in the nation's story. Not so the thousands who got on with the job every day, and lived through the same years. 

Oral History is a way to counteract this. By talking to the people who experienced life here, we hope to bring the nuanced details of history to the archival record.

Commemoration Day choir performance, 1964 (Photo: S. Tewson)

We continue to welcome a host of fascinating people to interview. Next month will be the turn of a former Newton Park student from the 1950s and a music lecturer who saw several decades of change in the same setting. Its always a pleasure to hear their words, and we look forward to sharing their stories.