Using oral sources
The most valuable source for this period proved to be a collection of documents in the custody of a village resident. These were the late 18th and 19th township books which included details of payments to the poor, highway accounts, township valuation books and township committee minute books. These provided almost all the information for the chapters on the lives of the poor and the administration of the Georgian township.
'Different people often see the same event from completely different perspectives ...'
Newspaper articles were also increasingly useful, as were personal scrap-books deposited at the record office. There was, for example, a comprehensive collection of press cuttings relating to Freckleton during the Cotton Famine, the terrible trade depression of the mid- 1860s.
When my research reached the 20th century I realised the value of anecdotal evidence and interviewed some 30 residents whose ages ranged from the late sixties to the mid-nineties. Different people often see the same event from completely different perspectives, so it was reassuring to discover that recollections invariably corresponded.
When I came to use this anecdotal information in my book I decided to use only first-hand accounts, as opposed to stories of events told to the interviewee by parents or grandparents. I also tried to find documentary sources such as press accounts which confirmed the anecdotal information.
Published: 2005-03-03
