Shelagh Wooliscroft

Transcript

0:00 Husband, Les worked in space research at University of Sheffield physics department. Shelagh worked for Youth Employment service. Originally from Surrey. Daughter born in 1974, Shelagh didn’t give up work because husband on temp contract and mortgage rates were very high (17%).

1:11 First person in education department in Sheffield to go on maternity leave. Left work 3 weeks before and came back 6 weeks after. Similar thing happened for next two children (sons).

2:40 Husband lecturer and reader, took over from a prof. Kaiser (communist, banned from some countries). Responsible for a lot of experiments most famous of which called Cluster. Les died of cancer year due to be launched. Shelagh and second son Tim went to French Guiana to see it launched. Maiden flight of Ariane 5, launch not configured properly so rocket blew up after 30 seconds. Repeat funded, in 2000 Cluster went up on a Russian rocket.

5:25 worked way up Youth Employment Service. Early 1990s Labour Govt privatisations. Over next 10 years funding dried up, what’s left of it is called Sheffield Futures, on Division Street and is largely youth work orientated. Careers advisors work in schools.

7:00 visited nearly every secondary school in Sheffield, and to the colleges. Worked with Helen Sharman’s father (who was a science teacher at Richmond college). Helen Sharman was the first British Astronaut and first women to reach the Mir space station in 1991.

7:35 Worked with unemployed people, especially in 198os, not many apprenticeships. Aftermath of this is a ‘lost generation’ of young people without proper training, who are now parents.

8:45 Sheffield very polarised city. South and West did A-Levels and higher education. People in North and East leaving school earliest opportunity, probably because of money. Been corrected a bit.

9:20 Shelagh was a governor at Furvell school for a long time. Tried to get (particularly girls) aspirations up, college and university. Thinks that Sheffield is still polarised, even in participation has gone up.

10:15 Moved to Sheff from Surrey 1971, husband doing PhD at London and Shelagh worked in Dorking and Weybridge. Moved because of husband’s job

10:55 Never been to Sheff before. Arrived on rainy August afternoon along Carlisle street, furnaces still lit ‘belching’ out smoke. ‘I though this is like coming to hell, how on earth am I going to settle’.

11:45 Second husband Roy. Both of their spouses had died from cancer. Lived for a while in Dronfield but moved to Sheffield because it was their locus, especially with the U3A. They were going to try and build a passive house, they got a plot but didn’t end up taking on the project because too expensive and unnerving.

13:30 Dronfield has an identity separate from Sheffield. Small village until mid-1960s, huge private housing estate built called Gosforth Valley. Shelagh and Roy moved in 2/3 through the development(1970s). Initially no infrastructure but shops and schools did develop. A lot of people have stayed there and are now pensioners. A lot of people go to Sheffield for ‘cultural things’/ Trains frequent but buses not, that is why the couple moved to Sheff. Greenbelt still in place between Dronfield and Sheff.

15:45 Attraction of Sheffield is that it is a compact city, not sprawling like Manchester. Sheffield called the ‘biggest village in England’. Long tradition of Labour council.