Man dressed in green with bagpipes-credit Sue Freeman

people and place

Recording oral histories

From the Staffordshire Moorlands to Cannock Chase, the potteries of Stoke on Trent to the brewing town of Burton - and everywhere in between, Staffordshire has a wide variety of accents and dialects. We will connect with communities to record the words and the local accents and dialects that make each place special and unique.


Oral histories and dialects

Staffordshire is a large county, varied in its landscapes and the dialects and accents that form each place. Stories arise from the landscapes, formed by place and human experience and we would like to record these tales in the local dialect. What better way to hear these stories than told by the people of the area in which they’re rooted?

We will work with local people to record these stories and tell their tales in their own words.

Further to this, recording different words for the same thing offers insights into ways of understanding local language variation. All language changes over time and understanding and recording this change helps inform people about the past and where they are from.

We will work with local individuals and groups to record language and dialect words.

Trent Valley Past & Present page