Patties on the rack - Summit Foods, West Street, Hull, circa 1960 |
I’m pleased to announce the launch of the Pattie Slappers project, funded by
Heritage Lottery. Over the next six
months, the project will see the collection of stories from people who worked
in Hull’s food processing industry. We’ll be producing a book, creating an oral
archive and presenting a free-to-view exhibition at the city’s Streetlife
Museum in spring 2013.
The city of Hull is closely associated with Britain's
fishing industry. However, in the latter half of the 20th century,
the development of a thriving food-processing industry created communities of
workers whose lives were spent in the factories processing fish and other
foodstuffs.
Pattie Slappers will
tell the untold story of the, mostly, women who worked in the earliest years of
Britain's frozen food industry. The workers were known locally as 'Pattie
Slappers' and were renowned in Hull and the Humber region for their
contributions to the city's vitality, social and industrial heritage. Familial
links to the fishing industry as well as their dependence on it for their
livelihood make it a key part of history of the city's social, economic and
industrial heritage.
As with many heritage projects, you quickly get a feel for
where there are gaps in understanding of a particular area of history. Pattie
Slappers fits the bill; our first forays into existing archives shows a distinct
lack of material. The stories, and the part the workers played in the 20th century's nascent frozen food industry are fast disappearing and it is
our aim to make sure they are not forgotten.
I’ll be talking about the Pattie Slappers with James Hoggarth on his evening show on BBC
Radio Humberside on 25th July.
If you’re interested in the project, we would like to invite
anyone who was involved in the food processing industry to get in touch. If you have photographs or stories to tell, we’d love to hear from you.
Call Gill or Simon on
01469 572313
Find us on our
facebook page HERE
Comments
Post a Comment