Food
Number of items in collection: 2045
Short description:
One of the largest projects of its kind, the National Life Stories collection Food: From Source to Salespoint (shelfmark C821) charts the extraordinary changes which transformed the production, manufacture and consumption of food in 20th-century Britain. Tesco: An Oral History, a National Life Stories project funded by Tesco (shelfmark C1087), recorded 39 life story interviews with employees of Tesco between 2003 and 2007, of which 28 are available online. It charts the rise of the supermarket retailer from an East End market stall to multinational giant. The archived recordings were used extensively in The Making of Tesco by Sarah Ryle.
Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.
Long description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
One of the largest projects of its kind, the National Life Stories collection Food: From Source to Salespoint (shelfmark C821) charts the extraordinary changes which transformed the production, manufacture and consumption of food in 20th-century Britain. Tesco: An Oral History, a National Life Stories project funded by Tesco (shelfmark C1087), recorded 39 life story interviews with employees of Tesco between 2003 and 2007, of which 28 are available online. It charts the rise of the supermarket retailer from an East End market stall to multinational giant. The archived recordings were used extensively in The Making of Tesco by Sarah Ryle.
Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.
Conducted over a ten year period, the Food: From Source to Salespoint recordings document people working at every level across a broad spread of industry sectors, ranging from farmers, to the point of sale in outlets as contrasting as family-run independent shops and supermarket chains. The variety of ways in which foods such as fish, meat, poultry and fruit are produced, distributed and sold are charted in detail across complementary recordings, including those with manufacturers as diverse as Nestle, Northern Foods and Unilever. Among the phases charted by the recordings are the scarcity of food during the lean years of the 1930s, rationing and the period of austerity which lasted until the early 1950s, the increasingly industrialisation of farming in the post-war period, advances in technology in manufacturing, and changing consumer tastes prompted by foreign holidays and the increasing availability of produce and ready-meals once considered exotic. British habits shifted from using small, often individually owned, high street shops to huge out of town superstores; instead of fish and chips as the mainstay take-away, choices from around the world became commonplace. This collection also features interviews with chefs, restaurateurs and food writers.
The recording phase of Food: From Source to Salespoint was generously sponsored by The Worshipful Company of Butchers; The Fishmongers' Company; The Fruiterers' Company; The Vintners' Company; Northern Foods Plc; Unilever; Cadbury/Cadbury Schweppes; Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd; Baxters of Speyside Ltd; Nestle UK and Sir John Craven. NLS also gratefully acknowledges the collaboration with the University of Sheffield to record many of the interviews on the chicken and sugar commodity chains, which was funded by the joint AHRC/ESRC programme ‘Cultures of Consumption’ 2003-2007. To provide access to Food Stories online at British Library Sounds, the project acknowledges the generous support of: Peter Blackburn; Sir Adrian Cadbury; Sir Dominic Cadbury; Lawrence Christensen; Lord and Lady Haskins; Sam Kilburn; Prue Leith; Sir Harry Soloman; David Webster
Ethical use of oral history
The interviewees have been generous in sharing their memories - often traumatic, confidential land intimate - and listeners are asked to treat this material with respect and sensitivity.
- Recordings should be analysed and presented in context, so that the interviewee’s meaning is not misconstrued.
- Quotations and audio clips should be referenced as, for example: 'Interview with Stuart Moore by Niamh Dillon, 2007, Tesco: An Oral History, reference C1087/39 track xx, © The British Library Board'.
Each interviewee whose recording appears on this site has assigned copyright to The British Library Board and given their consent for the recording to be used for educational study. We have made every effort to contact all the interviewees and inform them about this project. However should any participant wish to discuss their involvement they should contact the Curator for Oral History at the British Library Sound Archive (oralhistory@bl.uk)
Oral history at the British Library
The interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain.
Many interviews were gathered through National Life Stories, an externally-funded unit within the Library established in 1987 to 'record first-hand experiences of as wide across-section of present-day society as possible'.
All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.