The ‘Up the Manor!’ Oral History Project
michelle{at}villierspark.org.uk
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Abstract |
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Eton Manor Boys’ Club was a sports and social club based in east London between 1909 and 1967. Its motto was Up the Manor! In 2007, the ‘Up the Manor!’ (UTM) oral history project set out to record its story from men who had been Eton Manor Boys in the mid twentieth century. The project was paid for by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
UTM was an inter-generational project. A group of mixed-ability Year Ten students from a typical community school in inner east London were involved in its every aspect. They helped draw up an interview questionnaire and they carried out and filmed some of the interviews. They were aged fourteen and fifteen – the exact age their interviewees had been when they joined Eton Manor – and appreciated the opportunity to find out first-hand or face-to-face what it was like to be a young person growing up in their part of London during the mid-twentieth century. Taking part in the project encouraged the students to develop as historians; it also helped many of them learn how to socialize with older people.
This report provides a short history of the Eton Manor Boys’ Club; describes the progress, activities and outcomes of UTM; and argues the value of this type of oral history project, both for the participants directly involved and for the wider historical community.