Communicating Connections

Are you interested in local history? Maybe you know someone who worked for the Marconi Company? Communicating Connections have a unique opportunity for you to get directly involved in the collection of some of Chelmsford’s most well-known history. Find out more about how to get involved in this exciting project as a Volunteer Oral History Interviewer below.

An early mobile broadcasting tower

‘Communicating Connections’ is an oral history-based community heritage project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with contributions from Essex 2020 and the Friends of Historic Essex. It will explore the heritage of the Marconi Company, one of the most famous telecommunications and engineering companies in the world, based in Chelmsford. We will collect and archive oral history interviews with past employees of the company which will then inform an exhibition and a heritage trail app. Chelmsford is known locally as the ‘birthplace of radio’, so we want to share this heritage with the local and wider community.

We’re looking for 6 volunteer oral history interviewers to conduct 30 interviews in total with veterans of the Marconi Company. Full training in oral history interviewing will be provided by the Oral History Society and further support will be available throughout the project so there’s no need for prior oral history or interviewing experience.

The winding shop

We anticipate that interviewing will begin in November 2020, but please note this may change due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and government guidelines. All activities and interviews will be risk assessed and Covid-19 procedures will be in place.

More information can be found in the volunteer recruitment pack here.

Please direct any questions to the Project Co-ordinator, Laura Owen at communicatingconnections@gmail.com