Reminscence workshop at Rathan Court in Newhaven
Remembering our working lives
By John Cheves
Rathan Court in Newhaven.
Photo from the Heritage Plus archive
Winnie Day pictured at Rathan Court.
Photo from the Heritage Plus archive
Winnie Keep at the Heritage Plus workshop.
Photo from the Heritage Plus archive
Maurice Ralston photographed at Rathan Court.
Photo from the Heritage Plus archive
This workshop took place through February and March in 2008 at Rathan Court, a sheltered housing scheme for retired people in Newhaven.
Over the five weeks Heritage Plus volunteers Rosie Page and Marian Stanley worked with the residents to explore the themes of employment and work. They discussed topics such as pay, conditions, uniform, hours, holidays, training, travel arrangements as well as using photographs from the 1940s and 1950s to 'jog' people's memories.
At the end of the sessions the memories of three of the participants, Winnie Day, Winnie Keep and Maurice Ralston were collected together in a booklet produced by Heritage Plus entitled 'Reminiscence At Rathan Court'.
You can find more information about the booklet here, in our Products section, and the stories of the participants are collected here in the Working Life section of our archive.