A new oral history site about Woking and its people goes live on March 20 2008.

The history of a community is the history of its people – their daily lives, work and leisure activities down the years. For this reason, oral history projects are the ideal way to gain an insight into days gone by, allowing you to hear directly people’s memories of the way things used to be, and sometimes continue to be.

Volunteers and staff at The Lightbox in Woking have been recording interviews about people’s memories of life in the town for more than 15 years, in an ongoing oral history project that gives a glimpse of the town’s recent past.

Now, The Lightbox is putting these memories online for everyone to access for free. The gallery and museum’s website will host 48 recordings from the project, co-ordinated by community historian Rib Davis and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The recordings and background information go live at www.thelightbox.org.uk on Thursday March 20 2008.

“Oral history is a really vivid way of presenting the history of the borough in local people’s own words,” said project co-ordinator Rib Davis. “Hearing someone talk about something they have personally experienced is quite unlike the formal history books that we are all used to. Oral history shows that making history is something we are all a part of.”

The accounts come from all walks of life, with stories ranging from playing by the canal or on the common to working in the plant nurseries or Lion Works. Some people talk about having fun in the old swimming pool, while others share their story about coming to live here from up the road in London or across the world in Pakistan.

Lightbox Community historian Rib Davies. © The Lightbox

The recordings and transcriptions are accompanied by photos, adding colourful details to the history of the development of the town through those who make up the population.

“Putting oral history online makes it even more easily accessible,” said Rib. “People can listen to the extracts, read the transcripts and look at the photos in the comfort of their own homes. Schools can also make easy use of this resource as well, for their research into everything from shopping to the mosque.”

The selected recordings are arranged into eight themes corresponding with sections of ‘Woking’s Story’, the museum within The Lightbox that tells the town's story. This display also includes interactive displays where people can listen to the memories.

There are plans to make more of the memories available online and in the museum's display, and a book of transcripts is already available from The Lightbox shop (entitled Woking Living Words, £9.99).

Oral history based books on Brookwood Hospital and childhood in Woking are also planned.

And if you’d like to get involved in the project, it will never be too late – Rib and his volunteers are continuing to interview people about all sorts of topics.

“There won’t be any point where we’ll say, ‘That’s it!’” said Rib. “There will always be people we want to record.”