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‘Their finest hour’: older people, oral histories, andthe historical geography of social lifeGavin J. Andrews a , Robin A. Kearns b , Pia Kontos c & Viv Wilson aa University of Toronto, Faculty of Nursing , 155 College Street, Toronto, M5T 1P8, Canada E-mail:b University of Auckland, School of Geography and Environmental Science , Private Bag,92019, Auckland, New Zealandc Toronto Rehabilitation Institute , 550 University Avenue, Toronto, CanadaPublished online: 18 Aug 2006.

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‘Their finest hour’: older people, oral histories,and the historical geography of social life

Gavin J. Andrews1, Robin A. Kearns2, Pia Kontos3 & Viv Wilson1Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto M5T 1P8, Canada,

g.andrews@utoronto.ca; 2School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of

Auckland, Private Bag, 92019 Auckland, New Zealand; 3Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, 550

University Avenue, Toronto, Canada

When investigating older people, human geographers have been almost exclusivelyconcerned with distributive features or experiences of ageing, the latter often in relation toresidential and caring environments. From both healthcare and welfare perspectives, thesefields of research are extremely important. Notwithstanding, in an attempt to broadengeography’s current engagement with older people, we argue for attention to be paid toolder people’s pasts through their oral histories; hence focusing on when they wereyounger as a means to explore and understand past social life. As a case study, weinterviewed twelve older persons on their experiences of life in the English coastal town ofTeignmouth during World War II. The data indicate how older people are not onlylocated in local histories and the making of places, but also how the histories of places—from bricks and mortar to social and cultural dimensions—are equally located in theirnarratives. Indeed, rich, remarkable and often neglected modern oral histories of everydaysocial life are ‘there for the telling’, histories not captured by other methods andapproaches. We argue that although a wide range of positional, theoretical andmethodological issues require discussion, geographers might move beyond our case studyto consider older people more frequently in their historical representations of social life,place and landscape. Such a project might unite historical and social geography in a newdirection and provide unique viewing platforms onto existing debates.

Key words: ageing, older people, oral history, gerontology, historical geography, socialgeography, war.

Ageing, place and identity

During the 1970s and 1980s, a number of

social and health geographers became inter-

ested in age and ageing. Their field of research

expanded so rapidly that the early 1980s

witnessed the introduction of subdisciplinary

titles such as ‘geographies of ageing’ and

‘geographical gerontology’, and notably the

commencement of dedicated progress reports

published in Progress in Human Geography

(Harper and Laws 1995; Rowles 1986;

Warnes 1981, 1990). Although this research

initially flourished, despite some notable early

exceptions (Rowles 1978), until the early

1990s most studies remained relatively

descriptive in terms of mapping ageing

populations, their movements and related

Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 7, No. 2, April 2006

ISSN 1464-9365 print/ISSN 1470-1197 online/06/020153-25 q 2006 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/14649360600600338

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service delivery. Indeed, most commentators

considered the spatial patterning of older

population to be more important than older

people’s actual experiences of age and ageing

(Rowles 1986).

More recently however, mirroring changing

perspectives and priorities in human geogra-

phy, geographies of ageing have expanded

significantly in terms of their scale and focus

and have started to emphasize the varied

relationship between older people and both

their immediate and local environments. In the

context of residence and services, for example,

the negotiation of rural (Joseph 1996; Joseph

and Chalmers 1995; Joseph and Hallman

1998) and urban areas (Phillips 1999; Phillips,

Siu, Yeh and Cheng 2004) are important

concerns. In the ten years since the last

progress report (Harper and Laws 1995),

there has been a growing critical deconstruc-

tion of ageing, identity and place (Andrews

2003; Andrews and Phillips 2005). This has

been contributed to significantly by the much

broader discipline of social gerontology that,

as a category, includes research from psychol-

ogists, sociologists, economists, and health

services and professional researchers, as well

as human geographers. Hence, in many

respects, geographies of ageing form part of

a broader field of interdisciplinary ‘place-

sensitive’ research (this interdisciplinarity is

reflected by the volume of non-geographers

cited in the remainder of this section).

Introducing the concept of emplacement,

research suggests that places serve as crucial

material and symbolic sources for biographi-

cal development and, as such, make an

essential contribution to the construction of

personal identity. Attachment over time to, for

example, a home, its cherished objects and

community surroundings serves as an experi-

ential anchor for memories, personal histories,

and narratives, and in this respect that we can

say that personal identities are historically

emplaced (Hepworth 2000; Kontos 1998;

Laws,1995; Rowles 1993; Rubinstein 1989).

Home, is viewed as a place where control over

one’s own life can be freely exercised. More-

over, it is conceptualized as both a physical

space and a meaningful context for everyday

life and an invaluable resource for older

people in adjusting to the physical decline

that comes with increasing age. It is recognized

that home sustains their independence, and

their sense of personal identity (Andrews,

Gavin, Begley and Brodie 2003; Kontos 1998),

partially through historical identity (Hockey,

Penhale and Sibley 2001). Importantly, how

older people’s care-givers experience, use and

construct home is recognized as integral to

both their and older people’s lives (see

emerging ‘geographies of care and caring’—

Milligan 2003; Wiles 2003a, 2003b).

In addition to home, nursing homes

(Diamond 1992; Gubrium 1975, 1993;

Hazan 1994; Henderson 1994; Henderson

and Vesperi 1995), Alzheimer Support Units

(Chatterji, 1998; Reed-Danahay 2001; Vit-

toria 1998), community centres (Myerhoff

1978), and support groups (Gubrium 1986)

have been researched highlighting the multi-

spatial dimensions of the link between

emplacement and identity. These kinds of

studies help infuse a greater place-sensitivity

into health sciences research on professional

practice (see Andrews et al. 2005; Cutchin

2005; Wiles 2005) and inform policy and

planning debates over spatial integration

versus segregation of older populations (see

Cutchin 2003; Rosenberg and Everitt 2001).

The exploration of personal identity as a

spatialized phenomenon has more recently

extended beyond these traditional spaces

(Blaikie 1997; Cockerham 2000; Laviolette

2003). For example, Laviolette explores how

folklore traditions, legends and customs—

Gavin J. Andrews et al.154

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which are central to a regional collective

memory in Cornwall—involve landscape fea-

tures such as cemeteries, cairns, and Celtic

crosses. Hence ‘Cornishness’ as a social identity

is largely constituted and perpetuated by the

material landscape of prehistoric structures,

folklore, and various mortuary elements of

material culture. Similarly, Blaikie (1997)

exploreshowparticular visual imageryofageing

is very much associated with the British coast

and coastal heritage. Social gerontology’s spatial

inquiries are also exposing the limitations of

traditional spaces for older people, which are

themselves being challenged and reordered as in

the case of the Elderhostel movement (Katz

1996) and Universities of the Third Age (U3A)

(Hazan 1996; Katz 1996).

Much of the research on emplacement and

identity takes as its focus spatial characteristics

that are framed by historical family, commu-

nity and social relationships (Hockey, Penhale

and Sibley 2001). The unique spatial develop-

ment of ‘retirement communities’, for ex-

ample, takes us beyond traditional and local

analyses to lifestyle and leisure values that are

central to the redefinition of ageing in a

consumer culture that has turned old age into

an extended active phase of midlife (Feath-

erstone 1995; Katz 2005). As Laws describes,

‘Sun City is an imagineered environment

which houses people whose . . . [identities

have] been imagineered through a consumer

culture’ (Laws 1995, p.276, original empha-

sis). Such developments are part of the

postmodern cultivation of what Blaikie

(1999, 2002, 2005) refers to as ‘landscapes

of later life’. These emergent communities are

often publicized as ‘escapes’ and ‘havens’.

Having little to do with how ageing is

commonly experienced, these communities

effectively mask the ageing process by recon-

structing retirement living as continuously

active, healthy, and problem-free (Katz 2005).

Continuing these explorations, research has

identified RVing as a contemporary spatial

expression of the connection between the new

social ageing, consumerism and residence

(Blaikie 1999; Counts and Counts 2001).

Eroding the cohesiveness of place-bound social

relations, ‘RVers’ (‘campervaners’) are identi-

fied by their movement across large geographi-

cal spaces rather than by their specific

locations within them. These mobile retire-

ment cultures represent a radical fracturing of

traditional spaces of ageing, introducing a

socio-spatial dynamic that is shaping age

identities in a new way. Along the same lines,

Canadian ‘snowbirds’ who winter in Florida

(Katz 2005) as well as retired British migrants

to coastal resorts on the Mediterranean (King,

Warned and Williams 2000) are identified as

further examples of geographical dimensions

and movements in Third Age living that reflect

an emergent consumer culture in which

elderhood has been reconstructed as a market-

able lifestyle which exploits a desire to stay

young by purchasing commodified products

and services of youth (Katz 1995).

Astheabovediscussionidentifies,emplacement

and identityhavebeen investigatedwith respect to

a wide variety of contexts and empirical subjects

byhumangeographyandsocialgerontologymore

generally (Andrews and Kearns 2005a; Andrews

and Phillips 2005; Kontos 2005). Given the

wealth of research highlighted, there can be little

disagreement with the proposition that older

people’s lives and place are heavily interrelated

and co-created. However, despite this under-

standing, few geographical studies move beyond

researching the present to research older people’s

past identities with places and, in particular, the

purely historical insights that this strategy might

provide (see McDowell 2004a, b; 2005). In the

following section, we introduce oral history as an

approach to unlocking the past, through its

adoption by three disciplines.

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Beyond ageing: oral histories of place as . . .

A methodological tradition in history

Oral history has made a significant contri-

bution to the discipline of history, albeit in

recent decades and exclusively to modern

history (see Dunaway and Baum 1984; Prins

1991; Thompson 1978). A sizable proportion

of the literature articulates various methodo-

logical and analytical approaches (Douglas,

Roberts and Thompson 1988; Sommer and

Quinlan 2002) or considers their refinement

and extension. For example, with regard to

interview techniques (Morris 2002), writing

and blending narratives and narration (Good

2000; Jones 2004), and associated issues of

authority (Frish 1990; Thomson 2003). Other

methodological research is focused critically

on how people construct their narratives

(Gluck 1999) and related issues within the

rubric ‘narrator reliability’, such as forgetting,

selective memory recall, situation bias, the

roles of the conscious and the unconscious,

and shifting interpretations over time (Nor-

quay 1999; Prescott 1999; Summerfield 1988).

Beyond discussions of method, oral history

is used to investigate a vast range of empirical

subjects. In the context of the current study, a

key question is what insights are provided by

oral modern histories into the nature of

places? Preempting the subject of our latter

case study, if we take war as an example, the

treatment of place is wide-ranging. Research

can be concerned with large geographical

areas that have general descriptors such as

national ‘homefronts’, though the stories of

individuals often portray more local events

and experiences (Summerfield 1988). Certain

research considers people’s reactions to places

and events ‘elsewhere’, for example, conscien-

tious objectors to war (Tollefson 1993).

Research also considers very specific and

often small places in the context of events

ranging from the world renown to the

individually lesser known, for example,

recollections of witnesses to the Nuremberg

trials (Stave, Palmer and Frank 1998) and

captives of World War II prisoner of war

camps (Carlson 1997). At the micro-scale,

individual time and space events are con-

sidered—and changing perspectives over

time—such as a recent and in-depth analysis

of a Vietnam War firefight (Allison 2004).

Other studies consider larger-scale and better-

known places and events, and the multiple

voices involved, popular areas of study being

the Hiroshima atomic bomb (Palevsky 2003)

and involvement in the Vietnam War more

generally (Hemmings 1996). Dislocation,

relocation and mental reconciliation (or lack

thereof) are also important themes, particu-

larly regarding the Holocaust (Nutkiewicz

2003; Wolf 2002). Notably, nurse researchers

have been particularly productive in telling

oral histories of their own profession in times

and places of war (Biedermann, Usher,

Williams and Hayes 2001; LeVasseur 2003).

What this adds up to is a broad treatment of,

and engagement with, place; a range of studies

that tell us about places and peoples’ connec-

tions to them. However, there are three

fundamental differences between how place

is treated in this research and how it is

typically treated in human geography. First,

these studies often engage with place in a

rather implicit and superficialmanor. A general

focus ‘on’ a specific place simply frames the

research and provides one of its parameters.

Second, and related, these studies do not

specifically theorize the nature of place in

terms, for example, of interrelating scales and

the construction of specific place identity and

place memory. Third, despite some important

exceptions (Summerfield 1988) with respect

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to war anyway, there is lack of attention to the

seemingly mundane or ordinary in terms of

people and place. Nevertheless, a lack of a

spatial emphasis and analysis in discipline of

history is quite understandable. The discipline

certainly provides the main source of literature

that uses, and reflects upon, oral history.

A partial but growing engagement insocial and clinical gerontology

In some respects, expecting gerontologists to

consider history is expecting them to step

outside the fundamental concerns of their

discipline (i.e. to study younger lives as opposed

to older age). This might seem like a radical

departure, but it is not one without precedent.

Pathbreaking gerontologist Peter Townsend, for

example, found room to write a history of

people and place in the course of his wider

research on contemporary poverty. His Kather-

ine Buildings collection famously recollects

social change in Stepney, London, framing

older people’s then current experiences in the

past. Similarly, his book The Family Life of

Older People: An Inquiry in East London

articulateda rangeof socialhistorical transitions

and, in particular, the gradual breakdown of

family social networks that increased demand

for residential care services (Townsend 1957).

Since these early landmarks, recollection of

the past in gerontology has not specifically

occurred for the purpose of writing history.

In clinical gerontology, for example, various

forms of reminiscence are used as a caring

practice with therapeutic objectives, and

associated debate has centred on purposes,

techniques, forms and outcomes (see Bluck

and Levine 1998; Buchanan et al. 2002;

Hsieh and Wang 2003). Notably, and

concurrently, in these contexts, critical

gerontologists have been wary not to stereo-

type older people as permanently ‘living in

the past’, being preoccupied with past events,

peoples and places (Cohen and Taylor 1998).

Recently, researchers have directly compared

oral history and reminiscence (Bornat 1994,

2001; Heikkinen 2000). Bornat (2001) argues

that both traditions have existed for some time

as somewhat ‘separate universes’ occupied by

historians and gerontologists, respectively. She

posits that, in comparison to reminiscence, oral

history considers social life in great depth

(Bornat, Perks, Thompson and Walmsley

2000) and gives voice to those who experienced

and contributed to history, at times providing

alternativeand ‘anti’ histories (Frisch1990). She

also highlights that structurally, oral history is

most often obtained from respondents who are

interviewed individually, whereas reminiscence

is more typically group-orientated. Moreover,

oral history is concerned with a person’s past

(who that person was and where they were),

whereas reminiscence is concerned with how a

person’s past relates to their present (who they

are now andwhere they are now).Nevertheless,

despite these contrasts, Bornat suggests that

much is similar between reminiscence and oral

history in terms of a common focus on

‘interrogation’ implicit in their methods, an

emphasis on the context of accounts—and how

they are responded to—and an emphasis on the

shared ownership of research between older

people and researchers/practitioners. Hence,

Bornat very cautiously supports the future co-

development of these two traditions. We agree

and suggest that, although much remains to be

debatedmethodologically and otherwise, focus-

ing on the history of peoples and places has

unrealized, and perhaps surprising, potential in

gerontological research.

A rarity or ‘add-on’ in historical geography

There has been some recent attention in

historical geography to representation and the

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writing of historical narrative (Wishart 1997),

popular subjects, for example, being travel

writings (Gruffudd, Herbert and Piccini 2000)

and biography (Lorimer 2005) in the recon-

struction of historical landscapes. In compari-

son to the scope and volume of historical

geography as a subdiscipline, however, the use

of oral history is a relatively rare undertaking

(Blunt 2003; Lorimar 2003a, 2003b). To

speculate, thismight be because of the restricted

historical range older people are able to recall

and perhaps because of the lack of expertise in

oral history as a methodological approach.

When oral histories have been used, studies

havedemonstrated some ‘deviations’ from(some

may argue a weaknesses in comparison to) the

ways in which interviews are conducted,

analysed and reported in social geography and

sociology. Typically, this is exhibited through the

use of ‘one-off’ quotations from persons

encountered during fieldwork, and perhaps

during other forms of data collection. Blunt

(2003), for example, utilizes amodest amount of

oral history as part of a multiple method

approach in a consideration of collective

memory and nostalgia in the establishment of

anAnglo-Indianhomeland.This studyhighlights

the potential of nostalgia to challenge accepted

‘norms’ about past social relations and—in

contrast to expectations—involve important

views on both the present and future. Blunt’s

excellent paper has many strengths, and we only

use it here to highlight howmore could be made

of oral accounts in historical geographies of

modern times (also see, Brunger and Selwood

1997). Notably, it is an absence reflected in other

fields and debates in human geography. For

example, there is only cursory attention given to

oral histories in papers published in a recent

special editionofSocial and CulturalGeography,

focused on memory and place.

Despite these criticisms, there have been a

small number of recent attempts to use older

people’s stories in the writing of historical

geography. Lorimer’s papers ‘Telling small

stories’ and ‘The geography fieldcourse as

active archive’ tell historical geographies of

undergraduate geography education (Lorimer

2003a, 2003b). In the first aforementioned

paper, Lorimer combines personal letters,

diaries, field journals and personal recollec-

tions of a small number of individuals to

articulate the practice of learning geography in

the 1950s. In the latter, he relives a 1951

fieldcourse with a group of current under-

graduates and an original participant. Else-

where, another important contribution is

Bayliss (2002), who uses oral histories to re-

map social life (in London’s cottage council

estates 1919–1939) and challenge commonly

held assumptions about sense of community.

Specific methodological considerations are

central in two studies. Smith and Jackson

(1999) present the oral histories of 23

Ukrainians in Britain and reveal the social

construction of their collective memories and

imaginations. Most recently, through inter-

views with 25 female Latvian migrants to

Britain, McDowell (2004a, b, 2005) investi-

gates cultural memories of World War II and

subsequent dislocation. Amongst the study’s

many insights, is that narrative memories of

places are often constructed through a focus

on material objects that possess personal

historical significance. It would be fair to

suggest then that historical geography does

have at least some record in oral history

Locating our case study: geographyand war

Collectively, although some promising studies

on disciplinary approaches have emerged, in

terms of scope and potential, the above

research adds up to a rather patchy current

engagement with the oral history of places

from the disciplines of modern history,

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gerontology and geography. This is either

because of a lack of dedicated attention to, and

dedicated theorization of, place (i.e. in history

and to some extent gerontology), or a lack

of attention to oral accounts themselves (i.e. in

geography and to some extent gerontology).

Consequently, our case study of the local

expression of war seeks to demonstrate how

geographers might extend this engagement.

To some extent, the history of modern war is

the historyof places,whether these be countries,

regions, cities (see Beevor 1998, 2002) or

otherwise unremarkable sites made remarkable

by important historical events (see Hickey

1998). This is not surprising as most war

involves dispute over, occupation of, and

conflict involving territory. In this respect then,

mainstream historical studies of war have an

implicit geographical perspective. Beyond this

traditional historical literature, geographical

studies of war are certainly extensive in their

coverage, andmany issues are debated in depth,

particularly during the past decade (Kliot and

Waterman 1991; Flint 2004). One area of

research has considered the various roles of

geography as a discipline in the production of

war. Hefferman (1996), for example, considers

cartography andmilitary intelligence, the Royal

Geographical Society andWorldWar I. The co-

production of geographical and fascist thought

has been another area of sustained interest.

Fahlbusch, Rossler and Siegrist (1989), for

example, consider conservativism ideology and

geography in Germany 1920–1950. Mean-

while, Ditt (2001) discusses the concept of

German cultural regions in the Third Reich

through the work of Franz Petri.

Another area of research is concerned with

geographies in the impact and consequences of

war, a popular and important focus of attention

being the impacts on population and disease

distributions (Smallman-Raynor and Cliff 2004;

Smallman-Raynor, Nettleton and Cliff 2003).

Certain research is concernedwith recovery from

war (Hagen 2005; Clout 2006), Clout (1997),

for example, considering recovery in North East

France during the 1920s and the respective roles

of economic and state interests and social

cohesion and cooperation in reconstruction.

Meanwhile, the longer-term impacts of war in

terms of collective identity, memory and history

are considered (Hoelscher and Alderman 2004;

Osborne 2001; Gordon and Osborne 2004), for

example, recent research on the Hyde Park

Holocaust Memorial and social conflict and

negotiation over citing (Cooke 2000).

The representation of war has also been a

focus of historical geographers. For example,

Farish (2001) considered the crisis of represen-

tation for World War I in the ‘golden age’ of

foreign correspondents. The author demon-

strates that writing under the censor and

reflecting the unstable distinction between

home and front, the journalistic narrative

produced maculinist, nationalistic and heroic

accounts. Beyond these immediate concerns,

Farish more generally comments (2001: 273):

‘Representations of the war (World War I)

were certainly shaped by class, gender,

nationality, and other factors, but also by the

particularities of geography—not simply

“London” or “Ypres”, but much smaller

viewing points and platforms, accessible to

some and not others, that framed and

restricted impressions of the conflict’. Along

the same lines (as McDowell 2004a, b), we

argue that such viewing platforms should

include the oral histories of everyday people,

negotiating war and social life on a day-to-day

basis in less remarkable and everyday places.

In other words, ours is a call for attention to

the quotidian both in terms of perspective and

place. Our study seeks to demonstrate what

oral history might add to the above perspec-

tives and, by extension, to historical and social

geography.

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Method

Selecting a study site, participants and a recent

historical period to investigate was our first

priority. We chose the town of Teignmouth

in Devon, UK, its residents and 1939–1945,

primarily because of becoming familiar with

them in an associated study (Andrews and

Kearns 2005b). During World War II, Teign-

mouth’s small ship manufacturer, the Morgan

Giles Shipyard, turned its full production to

RAF and Admiralty demands. This activity,

coupled with Teignmouth’s close proximity to

the Devonport Naval Base at Plymouth

(approximately 45 miles), meant that the town

became a target for bombing (Figure 1). Hence,

we know that the war impacted heavily upon a

local population and place thatmight otherwise

be considered to be an unlikely target.

Twelve interviews were completed with older

peoplewhohad lived in the townofTeignmouth

during and since the war. These people were

identified, selected and interviewed by the

fourth-named author who, as a resident of the

town herself, knew them. All the respondents

were living independently in their own homes,

which also served as the venues for interviews.

Their ages ranged from 68 to 91 at the time of

Figure 1 Teignmouth, taken in the early 1950s. The large building that backs onto the riverside is

the Morgan Giles Shipyard, the main target for bombers, but missed by all the raids.

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data collection. In terms of their ages during

wartime (1939–1945), the average age at the

commencement of war was 15, and at the end

21.However, a considerable variation in the age

meant that some were children throughout

(n ¼ 4), some grew from teenagers into adults

(n ¼ 3) and other were adults throughout the

conflict and had partners fighting in the armed

services (n ¼ 5). With the exception of one, all

respondents were female. This was not a

purposefully calculated characteristic of the

sample but rather was a reflection of gender

differences in life expectancy, and that a far

greater proportion of local older women (rather

than local oldermen)were available to take part

in the study. Although gender differences or

specificity are not explicit concerns of this study,

we do recognize some implications of an almost

exclusively female sample, aswedo thepotential

for an explicitly feminist analysis (seeGluck and

Patai 1991).Olderwomendo represent a partial

representation of people and place. However, in

terms of their unique contribution, they provide

insights into sometimes neglected histories (see

Rose and Ogborn 1988). In this case, women’s

lives on the small-town British ‘homefront’.

The majority of interviews took approxi-

mately one hour to complete, but the exact

length depended on how much the particular

respondent wished to say and the length of time

that they were able to dedicate to the process. A

semi-structured interview technique was

selected to guarantee the discussion of some

pre-determined themes and also to encourage

the emergence and discussion of new issues.

Towards the end of each interview, respondents

were given a greater opportunity to take

conversations in the direction that they wished

and to discuss matters of particular importance

to them. Particular attention was paid not to

create unnecessary emotional distress by ques-

tioning about events that may have been

personally traumatic. Instead emphasis was

placed throughout on recollecting the past by

more lighthearted reminiscing.

Audio-tapeswere used to record all conversa-

tions, and detailed notes were completed in a

field diary following each interview to record

relevant contextual observations.On thewhole,

conversational practice was free-flowing and

unhindered.Most respondents requiredonly the

most basic of prompts to elaborate on their

practices and experiences. All interviews were

transcribed by the interviewer and later ana-

lysed by both her and the first author. The

selected and emerging categories and themes

were then discussed with the co-authors.

Issues surrounding data quality, including

the need (or not) for accuracy, truth, compre-

hensiveness (particularly with regard to

memory recall and forgetting), are practice

debates in oral history. Oral historians are

increasingly focusing on ‘risks and measures’,

at how people construct their narratives, for

example, for signs of ‘filling in’ and how to

account for these types of occurrences (Gluck

1999; Norquay 1999). Indeed, more generally,

oral historians are increasingly recognizing the

parameters and limitations of oral accounts

being, for example, partial, myth-laden, and

changeable over time (Summerfield 1988).

However, rejecting a perceived need for

objectivity and transparent statements of

‘truth’, a consensus opinion is emerging

amongst researchers that oral accounts can

be celebrated as important representations and

cultural constructions, with value in this

respect (Gluck 1999). This perspective we

embrace. Indeed, the goal of this paper is to

convey the potential for detailed ‘stories’

of place to be geographical data and for

some common conceptual themes to be

identified in older people’s memories. How-

ever, we do highlight data quality as important

future consideration for historical geographers

(see Watson and Wells 2005).

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Findings

The following findings articulate the neglected

geographies in finest hours1 of the women and

children resident in everyday towns and villages

of theBritishhomefront.Theydemonstratehow

theynegotiateddaily life, copedwith thehorrors

of war and how they contributed to the war

effort. Moreover, they demonstrate how these

stories are emplaced. Far from grand morale-

boosting political speeches are the interwoven

stories of people and place: Teignmothians and

Teignmouth

Uses of space and perceptions of place

During the war years, Teignmouth was armed

for its defence. As Andrews and Kearns

(2005b) outlined, weapons that were gradu-

ally installed included two sets of electro-

nically fired rocket launchers, two sets of

Bofors Cannons, two Coastal Navel Guns and

two Hispano machine guns (Figures 2 and 3).

Anti-invasion barricades and barbed wire

were placed along the beach (Figure 4),

much of which was out-of-bounds, and anti-

shipping wire was stretched across the river

mouth. Enough accommodation for the twelve

army regiments was also provided both within

and immediately outside the town.

Despite these measures, Teignmouth plunged

deep into the war. Between the evening of 7 July

1940 and the afternoon of 29 May 1944, the

town experienced twenty-two shock air raids

and over 460 alerts. Over 1,000 incendiaries

and seventy-nine high explosives were dropped

on the town and its surrounding areas, killing

seventy-nine people and injuring 151 (Figure 5).

Of the town’s 2957 houses, 228 were either

completely destroyedordamagedbeyond repair

whilst less than one-quarter were left unscathed

(Teignmouth Urban District Council war

records, 1940–1945). Over four years, the

raids were sudden and severe. Very often there

was insufficient time to sound the air raid alarm

and small aircraft tended to dive and ‘attack’

targets rather than bomb from high altitudes.

Figure 2 A camouflaged gun emplacement overlooking the Teign Estuary.

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Indeed, smaller tactical fighterswere reported to

have often opened fire with machine guns and

on civilian targets at extremely low altitudes

(Morrison 1939–1945). Our respondents

remember these events with great clarity.

Understandably they frequently included air

raids:

Infant school teachers were instructed to accompany

pupils into the old cellars beneath the Victorian

Figure 3 A resident of Teignmouth since the early 1920s overlooks her town. She stands on the

site of the gun emplacement shown in Figure 2.

Figure 4 Children resisted spatial restrictions and played on anti-invasion barricades (lining up

for this photo notwithstanding).

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building when the siren sounded. I dreaded this,

because it was dark and frightening for the children

and there was an ever-present fear of the building

above us being hit and collapsing on top of us.

Eventually a new brick shelter was constructed in the

playground, only a few steps from the classroom, and

I was relieved because it was preferable to the cellars

. . . 250 pupils in total had to take cover in this one

shelter. To keep their spirits up, we sang songs.

Patriotic ones suchas ‘There’ll alwaysbeanEngland’.

A favourite was ‘She’ll be comin’ round the

mountains’ since the kids could make up their own

verses as theywent along . . .Onoccasionswhen there

wasno siren towarnofan impending raid, us teachers

shouted ‘rabbits’ if we heard planes, guns or

explosions so that the kids crouched under their

desk . . .Onthedayof the school raid, Iwas suspended

in the air four times by the explosions. Many of the

children were in their first few days of attending

school. When they heard the explosions, machine

gunfire and cannon shell fire, they screamedwith such

terror that I have never forgotten the sound. People

whomakewar should bemade to listen to that sound.

Such insights provide a first-hand interpret-

ation of the impact of what otherwise might be

reported in historical documentation as merely

a date, time or casualty list; a more detailed

insight into a key event, what was experienced

and negotiated. Rather than being a one-off

recollection, the above quotation typifies the

depth of description encountered throughout

the research.

The war changed the way in which residents

used their town, the way in which they

negotiated it on a day-to-day basis. At times

this was unavoidable due to state enforced

regulatory measures and certain areas becom-

ing out-of-bounds (largely due to the citing of

gunnery, dangerous bombsites and anti-inva-

sion measures). Nevertheless, residents found

ways to subtly resist these spatial restrictions,

ways that have become folklore in everyday

life on the British homefront. This was

particularly the case for those who were

children during the conflict (see Figure 4), and,

in terms of research in children’s geographies,

Figure 5 Second Avenue, bombed on 2 March 1941.

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might be considered a disordering of adult

space (Cloke and Jones 2005):

The Market Hall stood a few yards away and the

attic rooms of our house looked over the lovely

glass section of roof. After it was bombed I would

play war games with pieces of wood for Tommy

Guns on the rubble and also on other bomb sites.

Boys like me who did this understood that if they

broke an arm or a leg, they would get told off but if

they ripped their trousers, they would get a good

hiding. After the site was cleared, US troops put a

bath house on that site between Brunswick Street

and Northumberland Place, used as a Shoppers’ car

park ever since. I never cross the car park even now

without expecting to smell the steam and carbolic

from the baths.

Collectively, many experiences might be

termed and mapped as ‘disturbing geogra-

phies’ (Holloway and Hubbard 2002). In this

respect, the first quotation below, by a

woman who was then a teenager, conveys

how the impacts of bombing, and associated

death, induced an uneasy and negative sense

of place in residents, and how they would

modify their behaviour to avoid certain

spaces. The second, in contrast, demonstrates

practical changes in the use of space to avoid

places of perceived high risk and frequent

places of perceived low risk. This was a

purposeful, tactful and regular negotiation of

everyday space:

I felt the town change and wondered what the end

would be. I would never have imagined that the

town would be full of buildings like empty shells.

After a building had been bombed out, I would

hurry by because it always felt strange. I did not like

to be on my own in the street and my brother would

sometimes stay put rather than walk home alone

past the bombed houses alongside Bitton St. They

gave off a weird feeling.

On Sundays, if the weather was good we went for a

longwalkbutneveracrossShaldonBridge incase they

got shot ator thebridgewasblownupandwecouldn’t

get home. Instead we roamed all up around the west

area through lanes to the golf course on Haldon.

The agency of ‘making safer spaces’ also

extended to specific actions undertaken during

the time of air raids. The first quotation

demonstrates this at the micro-scale of a

home, whilst the second demonstrates it at the

level of the town:

At work we were told to get under cover of the

counter. In the street we knew to dive into a building

or lie down, keeping away from windows. At home

we went under the stairs or the table. We thought

we were safe if our head was covered but in fact we

were simply burying our heads in the sand.

If the siren went at night, my mother insisted that

the whole family get dressed and walk through

French St on to the seafront and up over the bridge

to the fields of Eastcliff where father had an

allotment. She felt we were safer up there.

The constant threat of enemy invasion and

its consequences, particularly in the early years

of the war, further impacted upon the percep-

tion of a coastal town as an unsafe place. This

perception was particularly the case as Teign-

mouth’s beach and deep-water port made it a

potential landing site. Two respondents stated:

Teignmouth was particularly vulnerable. I

remember having the dread of invasion in the

back of my mind, but not to the extent that I

thought of it every day or even every week.

We lived from day to day, even hour to hour and

took each day as it came. We had a dread of the

unknown. I knew that the French had invaded here

in the past so why not the Germans now? I think we

were saved when the Germans turned on Russia.

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They had too many Fronts to fight on. After that,

we felt more relaxed.

Importantly, the latter quotation highlights

how a person’s perceptions might be located in

broader knowledge of the town’s history. This

history includes Teignmouth being invaded in

1340 and 1690, the latter time causing

extensive damage to property and to the

financial well-being of locals. Moreover, the

threat of invasion had continued arguably

until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 (Andrews

and Kearns 2005b). These are indeed well-

known and documented local histories,

recalled by locals in a relevant context.

Social change

According to respondents, in a small town

where the local population faced a similar set

of challenges, the war brought increased social

cohesion. This cohesion was operationalized

through a sense of collective responsibility for

the welfare of fellow Teignmothians, what we

might now conceptualize as social capital:

People worked together more then, looked out for

each other, told each other about which of the

town’s shops had unexpected supplies of foodstuffs.

The shared danger bound us together and I do not

remember any conflicts. None of the current

selfishness occurred then.

Importantly, the following quotation demon-

strates howmemories of past times, events and

social life might be evoked by encountering the

same places in the present. Hence how they

might be kept towards the fore and play a part

in current social life:

As I walked up Bickford Lane with my daughter and

granddaughter recently, I told them that I had

known every single person who lived there and had

slept in four different houses in the lane during the

war. Teignmouth was a tight-knit community then.

Participants claimed that, during the war, even

if they still existed in the background, there

was a temporary breakdown of traditional

class divides, particularly as they were socially

manifested. These stories are often presented

by older people as an important lesson for

contemporary society but, at the same time,

they might be very typical manifestations of

overly positive nostalgia that might not

accurately reflect the past social reality

(Watson and Wells 2005), particularly in

wartime (Summerfield 1988). Nevertheless,

as Gluck (1999) suggests, and as we indicated

earlier, oral histories are just as much about

how some features of the past exist as a

current cultural re-presentation. Participants

claimed to have faced a common purpose that

outweighed divisions such as income:

Social barriers were broken down, people mixed

more because they were all in same boat. The class

system went. I do not recall any in-fighting.

Afterwards, everyone went their separate ways

and got on with their lives and the closeness was

never the same.

People who had better jobs suddenly started talking

to us. Money couldn’t save anyone, a bomb is a

bomb. We all felt same things and did a lot of things

together.

Related to a degree of greater social cohesion

was a sense of ‘doing your bit for the town’.

This often involved volunteer work outside of

normal paid employment in key roles:

I was a teacher but once a week I worked in the

Report Centre in the cellar of Bitton House under

the control of Brigadier Morrison Chief ARP

Warden. I was issued with a tin hat and had

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to man the phones and follow instructions

according to the colour alert. If a Red Alert was

received, there was a list of places to be phoned, like

the Fire Brigade. Remember that each phone call

had to be manually connected via the GPO

switchboard in Den Rd! I also did my share of

Fire Watching in the school buildings at night. A

photo of me in uniform exists. It did not occur to me

at the time how ineffective a stirrup pump and

bucket of water would be if the worst happened.

‘Doing your bit’, for fellow Teignmothians,

sometimes extended to personal and caring

actions that exceeded job description and that

might be considered to be beyond the ‘call of

duty’:

I knew ‘secrets’ because of taking down telegrams.

One arrived announcing the death of the brother of

her friend and colleague in the Sorting Office.

Instead of passing it out for delivery to the parents,

I took decision to hand it direct to him. I will never

forget his reaction. He burst into tears and

eventually had to go into a mental hospital.

The older peoples stories also shed light on the

personal tactics they employed on a daily basis

just to ‘get by’. Getting by often involved

spatial routine and ritual:

We had nothing but we managed. Sometimes we

walked up to Guppy’s pig farm and were allowed to

pick up windfall apples. We filled a steel basin with

blackberries and the farmer cut us a cauli or

cabbage or swede to take home. Mum had no fear

for our safety walking all up there on our own. She

made jam and we had that—no butter—on bread

and it was wonderful! We swapped our sweet

coupons because we couldn’t afford to buy the

sweets so that we could get the sugar for the jam

instead. For breakfast we had bread and dripping.

Mum could ‘make a stew out of a cardboard box’

and sent me to Star Supply Stores to order 6d worth

of bacon bones and told me to ask them ‘don’t skin

all the meat off them!’ She soaked lentils and split

peas overnight then added carrots and onions in a

big cast iron pot.

In the later years of the war, Teignmouth

witnessed the influx of many allied soldiers,

who were housed in hotels or barracked just

outside the town. This was a significant

social change. For many residents, this was

the first time that they experienced

‘foreigners’ and ‘exotic’ others. For example,

respondents reported meeting ‘Indians’ and

‘black people’ for the very first time. The

most numerous outsiders were American

troops, based in Teignmouth whilst training

for the Normandy Invasion. The following

quotations highlights the contrast in cultures,

the local fascination with Americans and the

forms of, and perceived reasons for, local

interaction:

The advent of US servicemen changed the town

instantly. They were like a whirlwind, arriving in

lorries with immaculate uniforms. We thought

they were all film stars. They had everything—

lorries, jeeps, cars, lovely leather shoes and boots,

chewing gum, cigarettes—Camel & Stuyvescent!

They had £5 notes and did not know the value of

them, and nylons. Lots of money was made at the

dances in the London Hotel. They built the

cookhouse at the end of the pavilion and I knew

one that worked there who told me to go round

the back at 8pm when he was clearing up. He gave

me a bag with 2 tins of spam, some meat loaf in a

tin, and two tins of peaches. Mum wanted to

know where it had come from. I was about 12 and

was able to roast a dinner as well as any adult.

Once the Americans left we all knew that life

would never be the same again. They had simply

taken over everywhere

Troops used the Victoria Hall, close to the bridge,

as a canteen. Food was often sent to the village

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boys who hung about outside. I watched gun

crews do morning drill on ‘Sunny Patch’ in the

heart of the village . . . I often spent time making

friends with the gun crews. Sometimes went up to

the camp at Teign Snape and formed an

attachment with an officer who was

knowledgeable about wildlife. The friendships

were two-way . . . perhaps me and my chums

were filling a gap in the lives of the soldiers

missing their families

In many respects, these narratives reiterate

what are well reported and popular cultural

histories of World War II: ‘the yanks’

over ‘here’. However, in contrast to the

dominant narratives of ‘overpaid and over-

sexed’ invaders of British life, in local oral

histories we can observe the existence of

friendship and more subtle emotional attach-

ment. Moreover, they were relationships

grounded in the local urban and natural

landscape.

Emotional geographies

Many of the stories told so far illustrate how

the emotions (of war) and the local landscape,

both past and present, are interwoven. These

types of relationships have been articulated by

geographers in their recent writing as emotion-

al, and even disturbing, geographies (see

Davidson and Milligan 2004) and, in this

section, we examine these relationships in

greater detail. Many emotions are anchored

within the bricks and mortar of Teignmouth.

The following two quotations describe the loss

of family and neighbours and how these

memories are situated inside homes, on streets

and beyond:

We heard about a Battle in Norway in April 1940

on the wireless. Mother said ‘My son is out there’

Nobody really knew where he was but she kept on

about this and a week later a telegram arrived,

‘Missing believed Killed’. Soon after, I went to my

brother’s room to collect his photo album. He had

removed every photo of himself. The only

remaining photo of him was the one on the sitting

room mantelpiece. When he left home, he always

turned at the top of the lane to wave, but he didn’t

do it the last time. He must have had a

premonition. I will never forget the last time my

brother left home and did not turn and give a final

wave.

The raid I remember most was when dear friends,

*****, his wife and her parents and 3-year-old

daughter who I used to take out, were killed at their

home in ******** street. I had been told that the

child’s body was found on the neighbouring roof

and had to see for myself where it had happened.

When I got there, there was just a gap where their

home had been and I thanked God that they had all

gone together. On another occasion, a colleague

was cheerfully going home after work to replace the

final two windows damaged from an earlier raid,

but died in another attack that day. I said, ‘why is

God letting this happen? Why are these people

dying? What is he trying to tell us?’ I am still asking

that question.

Despite the frightening and traumatic nature

of what was happening to them, many

residents were able to find humour amongst

the madness. These stories again convey very

located experiences:

I knew to duck under the counter during a raid and

recall a workmate ducking under the sacks in the

Sorting Office—not that it would have protected

him, just that people had learned to get in under

anything

A local lady was tired of hearing the Yanks brag

about how big things were back home, so hid a

lobster in the bottom of his bed (a soldier who was

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lodging). When he asked what it was, she told him it

was a flea!

Similarly, coping strategies were located in

everyday life and the fabric of Teignmouth

society:

One night each week, I met my friends in the Girls’

Friendly Society with **** **** in a room in

Orchard Gardens. We did competitions, sing-songs

or just talked amongst ourselves about what had

happened in the town and the people that we

knew.

In the context of the end of the war, emotional

geographies have far more positive forms,

regarding the reuniting of loved ones and local

events for celebration (Figure 6). Importantly

street parties themselves provide a good

example of emotion expressed through the

urban landscape, the same urban landscape

that had suffered as a result of war:

I remember only the joy of my parents being back

together at home but felt celebration was

inappropriate as my brother was not coming

home. It was well celebrated, each locality putting

on their own party for children with flags, trestle

tables with sandwiches—not lavish due to severe

rationing but the relief made everyone happy. The

Town Council provided a reception for those

returning home after serving in the Armed Forces

but many missed out because they were still away,

especially those in the Far East.

On another note, an important point about

talking with older people about places and the

past is their experiences of doing this, and their

thoughts on its value. Although during the

research great care was taken to not focus on

subjects that could be upsetting, it was

obvious that certain respondents could have

been upset if conversation had been taken

further down certain paths. Nevertheless, for

the most part, the respondents both enjoyed

Figure 6 ‘Victory in Europe’ street party in Teign View Place. One of many similar urban

celebrations.

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recalling the past and saw some value in doing

this.

For years, all we wanted to do was forget the war

and bury the past. Servicemen and women and

civilians have never wished to remember or speak

about their experiences. The true value will be in

future years when people look back into history and

stories of ordinary people. The few diaries from the

Crimea War and World War One prove this point,

as they are all that remain of first-hand records.

There were, and still are, many bad memories but

on the plus side, we remember when we learned to

appreciate freedom, a standard of living, not to

waste food, but above all, a comradeship only

known to those who lived through those days . . .

I tried to focus on the good things, and not the

things that upset me, so that it was pleasant for me.

This final comment is important, particularly

when using oral histories for history’s sake,

rather than for well-being as a caring practice

(Bornat 2001). Indeed, as we will discuss, both

ethical and methodological issues are import-

ant and deserve substantial and dedicated

discussion beyond the current study.

Oral history and everyday social life:a reformed connection to older people?

The older people’s stories clearly demonstrate

unique insights into the history of places.

Indeed, what these narratives provide is

recollection about self, about relationships

with others and a place, insights rarely

provided in such depth by other methods.

On another level is an attention to marginal

place and people, both of which are sometimes

lost ‘off the map’ of formal historical scholar-

ship and historical geography. Importantly,

there is also an attention to the local impact of

‘big’ histories, that perhaps might even be

‘anti-histories’, stories that lie outside of, and

might even conflict with, dominant narratives.

In our case study, this relates to how a war was

fought, experienced and negotiated in a

relatively unknown place, particularly by

women and children. Importantly, oral his-

tories also provide insights into the nego-

tiation of everyday social life, in an everyday

place. As this relates to our case study, how the

war impacts day-in-day-out, when and where

it becomes as ‘normal’ as it can be.

Moreover, oral histories inform us about

how social processes play out in place. They

provide valuable insights into the changing

uses of place, as evidenced in our case study by

the stories of changing building usage and the

spatial rituals displayed during bombing raids.

At the same time, oral histories also provide

insights into changing perceptions of place as,

for example, evidenced in our case study by

reflections on invasion, and thoughts and

actions regarding places of death. Oral

histories offer insights into complex mixes of

place attachments and identities on scales

ranging from the country to the region, town,

street and home. Insights are also provided

into contests over place involving control,

resistance and negotiation. This is evidenced in

our case study by the breaking of safety rules

and regulations by children. Oral histories also

potentially inform us about the creation and

form of new local labour markets and

relations, as evidenced in our case study by

systems of economic exchange between child-

ren and servicemen, and the introduction of

women into volunteer and manual work. They

potentially tell us about the different impacts

of historical events on particular demographic,

and social groups and how these different

groups experience and negotiate events differ-

ently, and the various interactions between

them. Finally, they narrate important temporal

dimensions of place experiences and percep-

tions. On one level, this regards the specific

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period of interest: in our case study the six

years between 1939 and 1945. On another

level however, because respondents are still

alive, they are able to reflect on contemporary

meanings; how their past is located in their

present. In our case study, this is evidenced by

the memories of lost loved ones being locked

into the contemporary urban fabric of Teign-

mouth’s streets and houses.

An argument for a focus on everyday social

life is certainly not new in human geography,

and our perspective fits well with what may be

perceived to be disciplinary ‘progress’ in this

regard. It certainly connects to concerns for

everyday life and the negotiation of public

space in critical social theory (De Certeau

1984; Lefebvre 1991), which has underpinned

much critical geography during the last

decade. Moreover, our concern for the every-

day in historical geography is consistent with a

movement in human geography towards what

Holloway and Hubbard (2002) term ‘the

extraordinary geographies of everyday life’, in

particular, the everyday geographies that arise

from socially, economically and politically

constructed territoriality and associated

struggles for place (Holloway and Hubbard

2002). Moreover, the focus on the everyday

inevitably involves a focus on life in marginal

places, peripheries and out-of-the-way geo-

graphical locations, with a temporal emphasis

Shields (1991) describes as ‘histories of

transformations between the margins’. We

argue simply that older people’s oral histories

are one way to investigate and articulate such

everyday social geographies located in the

recent past, hence one way of bringing

historical geography up to speed with the

above concerns.

From medical and welfare perspectives, the

traditional geographical study of older

people’s experiences and negotiations of

ageing has been a wholly laudable endeavour.

Certainly, we do not argue that this research

should cease or be replaced, particularly

because geographers are gradually moving

from a problematized version of older age,

demonstrating older peoples’ proactive beha-

viours, considering more positive experiences

of ageing and various cultures of ageing.

Nevertheless, through the presentation of a

case study, we have argued that geographers

could make a quite different connection with

older people, who, through their experiences

and stories, might be able to teach us about

neglected but everyday social geographies of

past times. As well as enriching our under-

standing of historical events (and how they

impact upon, as well as create, social life),

these might help connect the subdisciplines of

social and historical geography to a greater

degree, and provide a broader range of

research methods and perspectives. Indeed,

given the initial and tentative connections we

have made to a wide range of emerging fields

of research in geography (such as, memory and

landscape, emotional geographies and disturb-

ing geographies) together with more estab-

lished traditions (such as geographies of

ageing and children’s geographies), the poten-

tial for oral history is potentially vast. If

progress is to be made, however, more focused

debate is certainly required regarding a range

of theoretical, methodological, analytical and

(inter)disciplinary issues. Some broad and

important questions include:

. What subjects and time periods might be,

and might not be, appropriately researched

using oral history?

. What types of people, for example, with

respect to frailty or connection to an

historical event or period, might contribute?

. What is the range of ethical issues involved

in talking to older people about their pasts,

and how might researchers minimize

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dangers to, and negative impacts on,

participants?

. What is the relationship between remini-

scence of place as a caring technique and

oral history of place as a research approach?

. In what ways might interviewing be refined

and what might be the potential and

contribution of group interviewing?

. What issues surround data quality—

reliability (nostalgic or partial recollection)

and, interpretation and representation?

Moreover, and more generally, the need for

‘truth’, as opposed to representations and

cultural constructions.

. Partial representation is an important issue.

What issues surround contradiction in the

oral histories with and between different

demographic or social groups? In particular,

what issues surround gender bias, and

because of differences in life expectancy,

the greater availability of women to

contribute oral histories?

. In what ways should and could older people

be involved throughout the research pro-

cess? In turn, what is the potential for, and

issues related to, participant action

research?

. What is the potential for oral histories to

inform social policy and urban planning in

various contexts and at various levels?

. What is the relationship between oral

history and other data sources, and could

oral history be effectively combined in

multi-method historical geographical

studies? In particular, how might oral

histories help geographers explore written

documents and potentially ‘complete’ the

understanding of a place or event?

. What are the consequences of a wider use of

oral history for progress in historical

geography? In particular, how does the

potential development of oral history as a

methodological approach relate to current

debates on memoir and landscapes of

memory in human and historical geography?

. What are the consequences of oral historical

research, in terms of progress in social

geography? This study points to a need to

consider oral history (i) as a significant change

of direction for geographies of ageing, (ii) as

anhistoricalperspective inemerging emotion-

al geographies, and (iii) as an historical

contribution to children’s geographies. How-

ever, beyond these, there is certainly potential

to explore connections between oral history

and other fields and literatures.

. What are the potential disciplinary linkages

between history (as a humanity) and human

geography through the use of oral history?

Andwhat contributions canhistorical geogra-

phy make to oral history as a method?

Whilst addressing these questions, we should

be wary not to position older people’s pasts as

being their ‘finest hour(s)’, and consequently

their current lives as less being somewhat less

important. This would further problematize

older age, something social geographers and

critical gerontologists have been working

against for over one decade. We close this

paper then with a series of unanswered ethical,

methodological, theoretical and positional

questions. However these, we suggest, form

the basis of the necessary research agenda. For

safe, effective and valuable research to occur,

they need to be addressed. They might be

challenging, although, as our research has

indicated, they potentially pave the way

towards a rich source of data: knowledgeable,

first-hand insights into the interrelated every-

day pasts of people and places.

Acknowledgements

All photographs are from the Viv Wilson

archive, Teignmouth, Devon.

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Note

1 Following the allied forces’ withdrawal from Dunkirk

and the German forces’ occupation of the entire western

and northern Europe, on 8 June 1940, the British Prime

Minister Winston Churchill made his ‘finest hour’

speech in the House of Commons. In 1940 this words

were grandiose, monumental and rousing to an entire

nation, reflecting both their predicament and the

challenges and tasks that lay ahead. There are, however,

thousands of stories that follow this speech about the

messy everyday social realities in conflict.

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Abstract translations

«Leur heure de gloire»: les personnes agees, leshistoires orales, et la geographie historique de la viesociale

A peu pres tous les geographes humains qui menentdes enquetes sur les personnes agees s’interessentaux questions qui concernent les aspects distributifsou experiences du vieillissement. En regle generale,ce dernier est examine en fonction des milieuxresidentiels, ou de respect et de soutien. Ces champsde recherche, en mettant l’accent sur les soins desante et le bien-etre social, sont d’une importanceprimordiale. Un elargissement des perspectivesgeographiques actuelles sur les personnes agees estneanmoins necessaire. Nous devons accorder uneattention particuliere aux passes des personnesagees et de leurs histoires orales. Ainsi, nousmettons l’emphase sur l’epoque de leur jeunessedans le but d’explorer et d’eclairer la vie socialeanterieure. Cette etude de cas nous a permisd’interviewer 12 personnes agees sur leurs experi-ences vecues pendant la Seconde Guerre mondialedans le village cotier britannique de Teignmouth.Les donnees recueillies revelent comment lespersonnes agees ne sont pas seulement inscritesdans les histoires locales et dans les processusd’elaboration des milieux, mais aussi dans leshistoires des lieux (allant de leurs briques et mortiera leurs dimensions socioculturelles) qui s’inscriventegalement dans le cadre de leurs recits narratifs. Eneffet, des histoires orales modernes, riches, eton-nantes et souvent delaissees sur la vie sociale de tousles jours peuvent etre entendues par qui veut bien lesecouter. Ces histoires n’ont ete saisies par d’autresmethodes ou approches. Bien que les questionspositionnelles, theoriques et methodologiques d’unegrande ampleur meritent d’etre discutees, noussoutenons que les geographes pourraient toujoursdepasser le cadre de notre etude de cas et tenircompte des personnes agees plus souvent dans leursrepresentations historiques de la vie sociale, du lieuet du paysage. Un tel projet pourrait unir les

dimensions sociale et historique de la geographie enleur donnant une nouvelle orientation, et ouvrir desperspectives uniques sur les debats actuels.

Mots-cles: vieillissement, personnes agees, histoireorale, gerontologie, geographie historique, geogra-phie sociale, guerre.

‘Su mejor momento’: gente mayor, historias orales yla geografıa historica de la vida social

En investigaciones sobre gente mayor los geografoshumanos se han centrado casi exclusivamente enaspectos distributivos o en experiencias de enveje-cer, el segundo muchas veces con relacion a lugaresde residencia o de asistencia. Desde el punto devista de los servicios de salud y asistencia socialestos campos de investigacion son sumamenteimportantes. No obstante, con el fin de ampliar elenfoque de la geografıa con respecto a gente mayor,sugerimos que hay que prestar mas atencion alpasado que la gente mayor expresa por sushistorias orales; centrarse en una epoca cuandoeran mas jovenes para explorar y mejor entender lavida social del pasado. Como estudio de casoentrevistamos a 12 personas mayores para sacarinformacion sobre sus experiencias de vida en laciudad costera inglesa llamada Teignmouth durantela Segunda Guerra Mundial. Los datos indican quela gente mayor se encuentra situada no solamenteen historias locales y en la creacion de lugares, sinotambien en las historias de lugares. En susnarrativas expresan todo desde la construccion delugares hasta sus dimensiones sociales y culturales.Es cierto que historias orales contemporaneos de lavida social cotidiana—ricas, notables y muchasveces ignoradas—existen y hay que aprovechar deellas; y es que son historias no reproducidas porotros metodos o enfoques. Sugerimos que, a pesarde las muchas cuestiones de postura, teorıa ymetodologıa que hay que deliberar, los geografosdeberıan enfocar el problema de una forma masamplia y considerar a la gente mayor mas amenudo al tratar cuestiones de representacioneshistoricas de la vida social, lugar y paisajes. Unproyecto de esta forma podrıa ser capaz de unir lageografıa historica y social en un nuevo sentido yofrecer nuevas perspectivas sobre debates yaexistentes.

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