Thornton collection

Physical details

• Number of Items in the collection: 10
• Venues where material can be listened to: Record Office
• Media available on: cassette tape

Collection history

The Thornton Collection contains seven interviews with people from Thornton, a mining and farming community, in North West Leicestershire. There is also additional supporting material relating to the village. The interviews were conducted to provide the basis of a book containing personal memories and pictures of Thornton called Thornton Through the Years. A copy of the book published by Thornton Community Centre in 1996 is held in the archive. Copies of the original collection were deposited with EMOHA in October 2001.

What the collection contains

The collection documents the lives and memories of seven residents of Thornton, each providing a different perspective of the village from the 1930s onwards. Recollections of service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and returning to work at a local mine contrast with the childhood memories of two men growing up in Thornton during the 1940s. Descriptions of childhood games and activities, along with various village personalities, shops, local farms and the activities of the home guard are recalled. Village life, village events, people and the development of the community centre are remembered from the 1960s. Thornton and Charnwood schools in the 1930s are recalled, along with local bus transportation and the work of the village midwife. A lifetime resident of the village recalls the local reservoir, the coming of public utilities to the village and a view of life in this rural setting. Descriptions of wartime service in the army and Royal Air Force are recounted along with recollections of pre-war holidays and pastimes.

• This collection is not on the EMOHA catalogue