Oral history
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Call for Volunteers: History of Parliament Oral History Project
The History of Parliament Trust is looking for new volunteer interviewers to join its oral history project! Since 2011, the project has interviewed over 250 former members of parliament, creating, in collaboration with the British Library, a unique sound archive…
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‘A Manly Place’: Experiences of Women in Parliament after 1997
On 19 March 2024, the History of Parliament Trust hosted the second in a series of events drawing on their groundbreaking Oral History Project. This event, in partnership with and funded by Keele University, explored women’s experiences in parliament and…
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HIV and Parliament: memories from our Oral History Project
For LGBT+ History Month, Dr Emma Peplow, Head of Contemporary History, uses the History of Parliament’s Oral History archive to reflect on the debates and experiences of HIV in Parliament during the 1980s. When the HIV/AIDs epidemic arrived in the UK…
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Mo Mowlam and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement
25 years ago this month the basis for peace in Northern Ireland – the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement – was signed after years of painstaking negotiations. Although nothing would have been achieved without the hard work of politicians and activists of…
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‘Helping the Disabled to Live to Capacity’: rediscovering Dr Margaret Agerholm through parliamentary history
Over the past few weeks UK Heritage institutions have been marking Disability History Month, and in today’s blog we hear from Dr Emmeline Ledgerwood, the History of Parliament’s Oral History Project Manager. Listening to the project’s interview with former MP…
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The search for good governance: David Hunt
As the History of Parliament Oral History Project continues to go from strength to strength following a two-year hiatus, here volunteer interviewer Peter Reilly reflects on his recent interview with Lord David Hunt, MP for Wirral and later Wirral West…
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Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: ‘That was how politics started for me’: memories on motivations from the History of Parliament Trust’s Sound Archive
Our Parliaments, Politics and People seminar is back for the autumn term! At next week’s seminar our head of Oral History, Dr Emma Peplow, will discuss what drove MPs into politics using materials gathered from our Oral History Project. The…
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‘You just become a tiny little speck of history’: First Impressions of the Palace of Westminster
When newly elected MPs first enter the Palace of Westminster, it is hard to ignore the hundreds of years of history that surrounds them. And as Dr Emma Peplow, Head of Oral History at the History of Parliament explores, this…
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The world of parliament extends beyond the Commons and Lords: Michael Morris, Lord Naseby
Since 2012 our team of volunteers have been interviewing former MPs about their lives and careers for the History of Parliament Oral History project, and often their memories reflect on current events both in Westminster and the wider world. Here,…
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‘Always great fun: particularly when there was a row going on’: memories of the 1922 Committee
Once again, the powerful backbench Conservative 1922 committee is back in the headlines. Here Dr Emma Peplow, head of our Oral History Project, shares some of former MPs’ memories of its workings and influence… Whilst the 1922 Committee comes to…
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Exeter elections in the 1990s: Witness Seminar
On 27 October we held our first ‘witness seminar’ at the Devon Heritage Centre as part of From the Grassroots: an oral history of community politics in Devon. The aim of a witness seminar is to bring together a small…