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Bridge building road historians |
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Bridge building road historians |
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The Road & Road Transport History Association is holding a research workshop in Leeds City Art Gallery on Saturday 27 October 2007 with a aim of ‘forging links and fostering closer integration between those engaged in the study of local history, family history and transport history’. There will six short talks from a diverse group of transport historians about different aspects of research sources and methods of publication, followed by plenty of time for discussion with the speakers about how local and family historians can work more closely with transport historians. It is easy to understand why the Association wants to build bridges between themselves and local and family historians. During the thirty years or so I have been taking a close interest in local history I have noticed (and commented on) the fact that some topics receive far less attention than others. I suspect that many see public transport as being for anoraks who just want to collect numbers or take pictures and bore us with the minutiae of the subject. If you go through books about road and rail transport it is easy to understand why local historians writing about their area avoid these topics. Rarely do local histories of any kind make the link between how an area develops and its transport systems. The only exceptions to this general observation which come to mind are a number of books about the role of public transport in the growth of London’s suburbs and the impact of the railways on hauliers in and around Wiltshire. From others I have gleaned information about how the coming of the railways, then the trams and the buses, has altered the social habits and the development of a particular town or city, but the author has not made the connection for me. The impact of the car has probably received even less attention. Rarely is there any historical analysis of how and why these things happened. It is an area of local history which deserves our attention, which is why the Roads & Road Transport History Association Research Workshop should be welcomed and supported by local historians. I also have to admit that I did not know the Association existed until a few months ago, when my own interest in a particular local history topic prompted me to go in search of more information, partly in the hope that someone had already done all the work, so I could just sit back and read about it. The topic which I have been wondering about for some time is the bus pass and its origins. Some time on the web and a few emails later, I received a lovely letter and a bundle of back issues from Roger Atkinson OBE, who edits the Newsletter of the Road & Road Transport Association. In his letter he told me ‘Concessionary fares on buses are, to this day, an absolute minefield into which few have ventured’, but he did include a copy of an article from the February 1995 newsletter on ‘Municipal Undertakings and Concessionary fares: A Crisis in the Fifties and one Town’s Solution’. I was already thinking of writing a piece for Local History Magazine in the hope that I might find some other local historians interested in taking part in a collaborative research project about bus passes and concessionary fares and talking to bus pass users about how the bus pass has changed over the years and the difference it has made to their lives. So, to be told by Roger Atkinson in his letter that his Association was planning an autumn meeting on how they could best foster research between road transport historians and local historians seemed like serendipity. I will be going to Leeds on 27 October and will be using the discussion session to begin my search for other historians with an interest in the local history of bus passes and concessionary fares. I hope that other local historians with an interest in other topics with a transport connection of some sort will also attend and shake the hand of co-operation which is being extended by the Road Road Transport History Association. Leaving No Stone Unturned, research workshop with the aim of forging closer links between local historians, family historians and transport historians, Leeds City Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds, 10.30am–4.00pm, £15 plus £5 buffet lunch, contact Roger Atkinson, Newsletter Editor, Road & Road Transport History Association, 45 Dee Banks, Chester CH3 5UU, tel: 01244 351066, email: rogeratkinson@f2s.com, www.rrtha.org.uk. Membership of R&RTHA costs £17pa for individuals including newsletter, subscriptions to Chris Hogan, Secretary, 124 Shenstone Avenue, Norton, Stourbridge, West Midlands DY8 3EJ. Robert Howard
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9 August 2007 |
