Tales of Corby residents' roots passed on for posterity

A set of books chronicling the history of migrants that were gleaned from interviews for an art project have been printed and published to ensure the are kept forever.

Corby Heritage Centre, Corby Library, Northamptonshire Records Office and the British Library will all receive books based on a Deep Roots Tall Trees' 'Changing Corby' work.

Interviews held by Judy Caine with members of Corby's most long-standing migrant communities – Scottish, Polish, Latvian and Serbian, took place in 2018 and 2019 as part of the Deep Roots Tall Trees programme The interviews explored how and why people came to Corby and their cultures and traditions to use as a starting point for artistic events including song, dance, costume and food.

Researcher Judy Caine said: "It was an absolutely fascinating project and it was a real privilege to listen to the people's stories - the trust they gave me.

"They shared some very personal moments of their lives. Some of the stories became the basis for songs."

Ms Caine interviewed 34 people, their conversations were then transcribed and collected into four books entitled ‘Tales from Scotland’, ‘Tales from Poland’, ‘Tales from Serbia’ and ‘Tales from Latvia’.

The first set of books were handed over to Northamptonshire Records Office at Wootton Hall Park in Northampton by Deep Roots Tall Trees' artistic director Neil Paris and Ms Caine to Katie Stewart, Collections Officer.

Ms Caine said: "People will be able to learn about the wonderful diverse community that now lives in Corby as copies of the books will be in the Northamptonshire Records Office and in the new year will be also given to the Corby Heritage Centre, Corby Local History Library. Hopefully, with the addition of ISBN numbers and a possible slightly different layout they will also find a home in the British Library along with the original audio recordings.

"I am delighted to be able to pass on their stories for future generations. "

Extracts from the book:

POLISH

“I came the year after we joined the EU – 2005. I think it was Corby that chose me I didn’t choose Corby! I was working in Matalan – two hours a day, seven days as a cleaner because it was the only job I could get without a National Insurance number. I did eventually get it and once I felt more confident with the language I went to an agency in London and had an interview and did the paperwork and the next day they phoned me 'OK you’ve got a job'. Be ready and we’ll come and collect you. That Friday a van picked me up and dropped me off on Melford Road, not far from Morrison’s, Oakley Vale. So, that’s how Corby chose me.”

“I’ve lived here exactly 30 years now. I came because I was educated in Poland as an English translator and teacher – I got a degree in English at a Polish University in Warsaw. I used to come every few years just to brush up my spoken English. In those days you didn’t get much contact with ‘live’ English so to speak. I came to London first to a relative for a few months and then I met my future husband and I stayed.”

SCOTTISH

“1973 when we first came here. I was 18 months old and my brother was two-and-a-half maybe three and my mum’s sisters had already come to Corby...they’d got houses and nice jobs and my mum got my dad here on the pretext of going on holiday because he didn’t want to leave Glasgow and all that he knew there. So, they came for a holiday and didn’t go home. Over the years, we went backwards and forwards 'cos my grandma still lived there. So, I remember going on holidays. We’d get Barton’s bus on a Friday evening and we would travel the ten,eleven, sometimes 12 hours overnight, 'cos with two young children it’s better if they can just sleep through the whole thing and we would do the same thing coming back on the Sunday night.”

“I finished my apprenticeship and in them days there was National Service ...and when I finished my service on the way home to Aberdeen, I stopped off in Corby to visit my brother who was working at the Golden Wonder potato crisp factory. And he said you start work at Golden Wonder on the Monday, so I never went back to Scotland... I stayed in Corby and got a job.”

LATVIAN

“My parents ...were offered the opportunity to come to England in order to make a new life for themselves. At the time they had actually thought they were going to go back to Latvia. But obviously as time went on, and then they met up and got married and there you go. My parents settled in Corby because of the steelworks, my father had a job here and was able to get employment.”

“I came to Corby in 1951. I wanted to join the Zuika, the male voice choir... they used to sing to Latvian communities. So I came to Corby and got a job at British Steel. The main aim was to join the choir to get to know the choir chairman, Mr. Bude, he arranged the jobs if people wanted to come and then, at the steelworks, Stewarts and Lloyds steelworks, so most of the choir members worked there.”

SERBIAN

“I lived in Croatia for 14 years and then we left due to war and travelled to Serbia on a journey. It was a couple of days in cars, lorries and literally I took some clothes, and I just happened to take our family photos because I like to look at the albums in my free time. I think nobody really understood that we were leaving forever.”

“Coming to England was scary but one thing that made it better for me was that when we came here we came with another family whose child was also a friend of mine, we went to school together. So, that made it a bit easier. I suppose the difficult part was as well, I didn’t speak any English. I knew very few words just by watching mainly American movies back home.”