A Day in the Life of...

Name: Maureen Watson
Role: Library Outreach Worker Bookstart and Early Years

This role is varied and involves working in an outreach capacity plus organising and delivering inhouse Story times and Rhythm and Rhyme sessions.

Currently my activities involve promoting the Library service to families with pre school children in the Rochdale borough. A major part of my role is promoting Bookstart and Bookcrawl. This is outreach work that takes me into many Early Years settings in the borough ie. Nursery Schools, Nursery Classes, Private Nursery provision, Children's Centres and Playgroups.

‘Tell My Story’ Event’

Middleton Library held a ‘Tell My Story’ event on Tuesday 2nd June. We wanted to showcase some of our local studies materials, to encourage people to write down their memories and to have an enjoyable social morning.

• Local residents, Alice Mellalieu-Campbell and Albert Findlow came to talk about their autobiographies.
• We pulled out all the books from our collection which give first hand accounts of people’s lives in Middleton.
• We had representatives of the ‘Middleton Memories’ reminiscence magazine and a member of Langley Library writing group.

All those who attended had a good time and left positive comments.

We were disappointed that we didn’t attract more people. We would have liked to attract some younger people and some who were new to the local studies service. We suspect the theme of the event was a bit off putting (people seem to have thought they would have to contribute).

When we hold similar events in future we will use more publicity and direct it more toward younger people to see if we can encourage them to join in.

Tell Your Story

Do you have a story to tell?

Samuel Bamford was the first to publish his account of everyday life in Middleton. In his diaries published in the 1840’s, he describes the daily life of the local handloom weavers, the customs and celebrations which they enjoyed and their struggle for political reform.

In her biography, Alice Mellalieu-Campbell describes working in the Middleton Junction jam works in the 1930’s. Basil D’Oliveira wrote about the welcome he received from local folk when he joined Middleton Cricket Team in 1960. Helen Tse wrote “Sweet Mandarin” in order to tell the story of her grandmother, Lily Kwok, who opened the first Chinese restaurant in Middleton in the 1950’s. And not forgetting Alfred Howarth’s ‘Memories of a Middleton Moonraker’, his
recollections of life during the twenties and thirties.

All these books are available in the local studies section at Middleton library. We also have a wealth of unpublished accounts of local people’s lives.

Do you have memories of day to day life or significant events in Middleton history? If so we would like to invite you to a “Tell your Story” event at Middleton Library on Tuesday 2nd June from 10 – 12pm.

Come and view these first hand accounts of Middleton life.

• Alice Campbell will be there to tell people how she wrote her autobiography and had it published.
• The ‘Memories of Middleton’ Team will also be present. They can tell you how to write a short article for their magazine.
• Why not write a page or two and bring it with you. We will also have a member of a local writing group to tell you about the group she attends and maybe advise you on how to write your own life history.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Refreshments provided. Please phone Middleton library on 643 5228 to book your free place.

Storytelling course

Do you want to share stories with your child but are not sure how to start?

You don’t have to be great at reading to tell a brilliant story.

Rochdale Libraries and Touchstones Rochdale are offering a free Storytelling Course for Parents and Carers. Starting on Monday 6 July and ending with a celebration party for all the family on Saturday 26 September the six sessions will explore Storytelling in its many forms.

For further details and to book your free place tel: 01706 924941 or email: ray.stearn@rochdale.gov.uk

Apologies: due to circumstances beyond our control we have had to postpone this programme. We hope to be able to deliver it later this year.

Reading group news

At the May meeting of Middleton Reading Group we discussed our favourite authors’ debut novels.

Our next meeting is on Monday 22nd June from 6 – 7 p.m. at Middleton Library and we will be discussing books by Elizabeth Gaskell.

New members are always welcome to join us.

Contact Community Librarian, Maria, on 0161 643 5228 for more information.