Wisearchive Weblog

From art to occupational therapy

wisearchive — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:44:51 +0000

This lively and revealing contribution traces the working life of a London-born occupational therapist from her art training and holiday jobs (including supplying embroidery materials to Judi Dench!) through to qualified O.T. work with dementia patients, amputees, and in mental health on rotations in the Norfolk area. After an adventurous trip to Argentina, she worked in social services assessing benefits and moved to the Eastern region dealing with all kinds of characters and situations. There is a lot of food for thought in this story of how a talent for art and crafts led to a career helping others. It offers considerations on the changes in occupational therapy through the decades, as well as on dealing with diabetes in the workplace.

Find the story on: www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/social-care/243/

Not just a telephone engineer

wisearchive — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:30:26 +0000

Our next story gives an insight into changes in the British telecommunications world, beginning as the G.P.O. and later BT. The contributor began work at 15 in a factory in 1954 in Tottenham, but soon moved to the Parks department as a gardener and also worked as a bowling green keeper. He was always keen to teach himself new skills, which stood him in good stead in his work installing equipment for the G.P.O. (later BT). He worked his way up to Supervisor, and then became an Instructor planning and implementing new courses for telephone installers all over the country. After leaving BT he returned to gardening and maintenance, working with patients in a residential home and then set up his own maintenance firm.

Find the full story on www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/post-office/241/ .

Happy New Year

wisearchive — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:20:01 +0000

The first of our new stories for the 2012 come from a married couple living in Thetford. Mr F. worked in sales for the Co-op and other businesses based in the Thetford area including selling Walls sausages and pies to shops around Norfolk and Suffolk. He then went into the family recycling firm and built the business up until it was operating a thousand skips. He ended his career working for Breckland Council facilities team.
Mrs F. trained as a secretary and worked for an optician in Bury and then for a well-known Thetford building, undertakers and commercial business. She took on all the responsible work, including arranging funerals, working out wages and paying them before the days of calculators or computers, and there were no facilities such as canteens or washrooms.
Find the stories at: www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/Retail/248/ (Sales and recycling) and www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/general_employment_conditions/245 (A very different working world).

Happy Christmas From WISEArchive’s Chairperson Pauline

wisearchive — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:58:43 +0000

A very productive management meeting was held on December 9th 2011. members were pleased with the results of the fundraising, and congratulated Olwen in setting up a Localgiving web page. This means readers can donate on line, from a small amount to a thousand pounds or more. Money raised will go towards improving the website after we have covered our annual expenses.
This year we have had 7000 visits to the site which means a lot of people reading your stories.
Happy Christmas to everyone.

Pauline

Localgiving.com is an online giving portal founded by social entrepreneur and ‘Secret Millionaire’ Marcelle Speller and co-owned by the Community Foundation Network. Click on the logo to find news about us and how you can help. Looking forward to hearing from you.

STOP PRESS – For a limited time, Localgiving’s Christmas Match Fund will double the value of your donations, so don’t delay.

www.localgiving.com/charity/wisearchive

New stories for November 2011

wisearchive — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:26:35 +0000

Three new stories have been added to the Archive. The first describes the changes in the work of a photo-retoucher and scanner in the printing trade from the 1960s into the computer age. It also gives an insight into producing and selling ice-cream as the contributor is a member of a well-known Italian family in the ice-cream business. Retouching before Computers: www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/printing/238/
The second story tells of the author’s life in the Westminster Bank in Norwich and she reminisces about changes in the life of a housewife and mother over the generations. Life in the Westminster Bank, Norwich: www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/finance/239/
The last story covers the career of a technician in the R.A.F. which carried on into civilian life as a technical writer and school science laboratory technician. Career highlights are as a bandsman at the Queen’s coronation and receiving the Queen’s colour at Marham training school, as well as preparing aircraft during the Suez crisis. A technical career. From the RAF into civilian life. www.wisearchive.co.uk/projects/uniformedservices/240/

A Milestone on the Voyage of Experience

wisearchive — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:09:35 +0000

One day, after his National Service, the contributor found himself outside the Cunard Building in Liverpool, and on an impulse walked in and asked for a job. This led to ten years working as a purser on cruise liners. When expecting a family he gave up the sea and took to the air, becoming an air traffic controller at Blackpool and Swansea and then moving to Norwich Airport. He was instrumental in developing the air traffic control systems to cope with the expansion of the North Sea oil industry and moved to Aberdeen as senior air traffic controller. He then worked offshore coordinating air and sea traffic in the northern North Sea. He gives a detailed and entertaining picture of life offshore.

Find the story under Transport http://wisearchive.co.uk/projects/transport/237/.

North Walsham Remembered No 2

wisearchive — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:57:48 +0000

We had a very enjoyable day at the North Walsham & District Community Archive Group’s second “North Walsham Remembered” exhibition on Friday 21 and Saturday 22nd October. Mike Ling and Brian Hedge’s extensive display of photos of the town over the years attracted over 300 visitors who had a great time recalling old times and contributing their knowledge to the slideshows!

There was also interest in WISEARchive’s work and we will bring you new stories from the area soon.

Find out more at: http://www.northwalshamarchive.co.uk/ .

Ups and downs of steam

wisearchive — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:14:27 +0000

Find out what happened to the nameplate on the “Norwich City” engine. What did the railwaymen get up to celebrating the Canaries’ Cup Run? What happened to the stationmaster’s coach during the 1953 floods? Read about it in this story from our contributor who worked on the railways in Norfolk through the days of steam. Go to Ups and Downs of Steam in the Transport Catalogue http://www.wisearchive .co.uk/projects/transport/236/.

North Walsham Remembered No 2

wisearchive — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:06:16 +0000

There was also interest in WISEArchive’s work and we will bring you new stories from the area soon.

Find out more at: http://www.northwalshamarchive.co.uk/ .

Come and meet us and try your luck at our fund-raising events

wisearchive — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:49:57 +0000

Judy and Olwen ran bric-a-brac and tombola sales at two North Walsham Community Centre Saturday morning sales and will be at North Walsham St. Benet’s Hall on Thursday morning, November 17th. Thanks to North Walsham Players for organising the events.
Our next fundraising appointment is on Saturday 5th November at Taverham Village Hall’s Indoor Car Boot sale.
Come along and find out more about us and try your luck on the tombola.