Threads & yarns. Jessie Burrill.

Threads and yarns

London : Wellcome Trust, 2011.

1 encoded audio file (11:57 min.) + 1 PDF transcript.

00:11:57

Wellcome Trust, 2011

Some restrictions.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No derivatives 3.0 Unported

In English.

Interview took place on 16th May 2011

This recording is from a series of 8, which were captured by a team of interviews for the Wellcome Trust's 75th anniversary celebrations. Two day-long workshops were held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2011. These were attended by seniors from the London Borough of Camden and textile design students from Central St Martin s College of Art and Design. Seniors and students worked individually to create woven flowers, whilst engaging together in conversation around the themes of health and wellbeing. These intergenerational conversations were audio recorded and formed one part of the project s narrative component. Seniors were also invited to record a story or anecdote relating to their personal experiences of health and wellbeing, in shorter one to one interviews, called Threads. These took place throughout both workshops and were recorded in a separate interviewing space. They were conducted using an oral history approach, with an emphasis on active listening and self-narration. Five of these Threads have been submitted to the Wellcome Library. The three oral history interviews submitted were carried out with seniors in the weeks following the workshops. These more extended narratives, called Yarns, were recorded by the project s Oral History Lead, using a life story approach.

Jessie was born in 1924 in Camden (St Pancras); she was born in hospital. Jessie talks about her diet; during the war (she was 15 when war broke out), her diet was very frugal. She remembers queuing for food and having spam. Families saved scraps for the pig and they would have a share when the pig was slaughtered. There were no processed foods and Jessie remembers buying freshly made fish paste from the fishmonger. Jessie listened to a radio doctor who gave out health messages. Jessie still has a recipe book from the war-time cook and dietician, Marguerite Patten. Jessie was evacuated to Luton. At that time, she doesn t remember many obese people. Jessie had rickets as a very young time child; she had to stay in hospital and get her legs straightened. Jessie had her first alcoholic drink and cigarette aged 21. She comments on social pressure to join in. Her favourite meal is fish and chips! Time end: 00:11:57:00 Length: 00:11:57:00