Threads & yarns. Shirley Collins.

Threads and yarns

London : Wellcome Trust, 2011.

1 encoded audio file (16:35 min.) + 1 PDF transcript.

00:16:35

Wellcome Trust, 2011

Some restrictions.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No derivatives 3.0 Unported

In English.

Interview took place on 16th May 2011

This recording is from a series of 8, which were captured by a team of interviews for the Wellcome Trust's 75th anniversary celebrations. Two day-long workshops were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2011. These were attended by seniors from the London Borough of Camden and textile design students from Central St Martin s College of Art and Design. Seniors and students worked individually to create woven flowers, whilst engaging together in conversation around the themes of health and wellbeing. These intergenerational conversations were audio recorded and formed one part of the project s narrative component. Seniors were also invited to record a story or anecdote relating to their personal experiences of health and wellbeing, in shorter one to one interviews, called Threads. These took place throughout both workshops and were recorded in a separate interviewing space. They were conducted using an oral history approach, with an emphasis on active listening and self-narration. Five of these Threads have been submitted to the Wellcome Library. The three oral history interviews submitted were carried out with seniors in the weeks following the workshops. These more extended narratives, called Yarns, were recorded by the project s Oral History Lead, using a life story approach.

Shirley was born at home near Luton in 1936. Shirley recalls that her mother told her that it was a long birth attended by the midwife. Her family were 'on the panel' (a subscription service allowing ordinary people to access healthcare which pre-dated the NHS). She mentions that her own mother had her gall bladder removed on the kitchen table (this was around 1912). Shirley heard about menstruation from her cousin. In terms of pain relief; there was very little else other than aspirin. She mentions a herbal remedy, a powder called 'Composition' which dissolved in water, tasted spicy and was warming. She remembers her mother buying 'turkey rhubarb'. For coughs, Shirley had warmed butter, treacle and vinegar which tasted nice. Shirley takes dietary supplements; she had some psychological problems and then decided that she should take some vitamin B (Brewers' Yeast) and take matters into her own hands. She has done some research reading articles. She also has physiotherapy. She has always cooked from scratch using whole foods she still refuses to have cola in the house! Time end: 00:16:35:00 Length: 00:16:35:00