In 2006 Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People ran a project to record the experiences and memories of Deaf and Disabled People from Ardwick, Manchester.
The history of people’s everyday lives is often overlooked when past experiences are recorded. However, the lives of deaf and disabled people are almost totally ignored and largely undocumented.
The Ardwick People’s History Project aimed to change that and culminated in the creation of an exhibition which combined archive and contemporary photographs, with extracts from the interviews we conducted.
"...lots (of) deaf people used to work in central Ardwick, doing factory work, sewing and other things. In the evenings, Deaf people used to meet in Ardwick park. There were lots of trees and open space where you could see deaf people signing when you travel past in a bus or car. Now, it is all gone...."
The exhibition was originally presented in the form of 15 x A1 panels and we now have created an online version which is available to download in either PDF or Word.
Ardwick Exhibition: text and images (PDF)
Ardwick Exhibition: text only (Word)
"...it was a special school... just for people who had learning difficulties, and they used to make us cross the road... they didn’t want us going past that school.. that was the mind set then... you couldn’t even walk past the railings of a school that had lots of kids in with learning difficulties. It, it was horrendous, and it upset me then and even more so now..."
In addition to the exhibition, GMCDP has also produced a report on the project which is available to download in either PDF or Word.
Ardwick Report (PDF)
Ardwick Report (Word)
Acknowledgements: Our grateful thanks goes to Brenda, Herbert, Lee, Sheila, Teddy, Des, Kenny and Audrey for giving their time and sharing their memories with us, and to Patrick Burke (English Heritage) for his support, advice and guidance throughout the project.
Further support was provided by The Oral History Society, and Manchester City Council’s Archives and Local Studies Department (NB. archive photographs are reproduced by kind permission of Manchester City Council). Funded By: Manchester City Council, English Heritage, CN4M and The European Social Fund.
