Rachael describes her childhood growing up in Hemel Hempstead, playing in the fields, the daughter of a Romany father and a White British middle class mother whose marriage crossed the social divide. She spoke of her father’s and her own psychic abilities and how her...
Stephen tells the fascinating story of his father Mervyn who was the founder of Ilfracombe Museum and also its first public library. Mervyn was an intrepid adventurer. He was originally from London but liked Ilfracombe and had family connections in the town. After...
Cherif was born in Algeria in the 1970s. He reminisces about his early life there by the sea, ‘hanging out on the beaches’, then how school got stressful at the age of 11. At 16 the civil war started. He used to play handball to take his mind of things. He went to...
Ann talks about her father Thornton Thomas, who was a sporting hero in Ilfracombe, a footballer, who was told that ‘he would never be chosen for a first league team, not because he couldn’t play but because he was black’. Thornton was born in London and it’s...
Karen discusses growing up in South Africa ‘in a very, very special part of the world across the road from a very beautiful beach. The Cape, where I came from, has a Mediterranean climate. It absolutely was a beautiful place to live and grow up.’ She grew up in...
Abi begins by talking about her mixed heritage – half white British on her mother’s side and half Nigerian on her father’s, being born in London and growing up for the first nine years of her life in the capital city. She talks about her first school, its incredible...
Media Statement 12th August 2024 All of us working on the Telling Our Stories, Finding Our Roots multicultural history project in Devon stand in unity against the violence and racism we have been witnessing in the media and on UK streets. For the past year and in...
Oral history has been a large part of the Telling Our Stories project. Sharing and recording Exeter's local histories has helped to presereve the personal stories of individuals from dicers communities that have helped to shape Exeter today. Volunteers interviewed...
Maurice Hawker was born in St Thomas in 1934, and still lives in Exeter. He remembers the second world war, especially the Black GIs stationed near his home in Union St, and the Blitz. Maurice and his wife Ruth are in the Salvation Army – we are very grateful to them...
Sue Evens was born in Exeter in 1950, and has lived here ever since. Her mother was Mrs Hendy (pictured right), who came from the first black family in Cornwall. Read more about Mrs Hendy's fascinating story. Mr and Mrs Hendy met at the end of the war - Mr Hendy was...
Mohammed Abdullah, Shahidur Rahman (far right), and Sayed Masuad Ali (right) are three of the founders of Exeter mosque. They are all British Bangladeshis from Sylhet, who came to Exeter in the late 60s and early 70s, and have run some of the oldest 'Indian'...