From the 1940s to the 1980s, Morecambe played host to the Miss Great Britain beauty contests. Seen as a legitimate form of seaside entertainment for three decades, the beauty contests tell us something about the changes in women's lives in the post war decades. Professor Amanda Vickery, talks about the research she has undertaken in the surviving records relating to the contests held at Lancashire Archives and elsewhere. This podcast coincides with the exhibition 'Shaping the Future: Lancashire women's lives, 1950-1980'.

Archivists Kathryn Newman and Vicci McCann are joined in Local and Community History Month by Steve Harrison of the Friends of Winckley Square to talk about the history, redevelopment and renaissance of Preston's iconic Square and inhabitants over time.

Archivists Kathryn Newman and Victoria McCann are joined by Dr Alan Crosby to talk about the history of gardens and all things horticultural in Lancashire, ending with a 'fruity' tale from the church court records!

This is an excerpt from a podcast recorded in September 2021 for Sports Heritage Day. In this clip Dr Peter Holme of the National Football Museum talk about Dick Kerr Ladies and the history of women's football.

190 years ago John King and Joseph Livesey signed the total abstinence pledge thereby starting an unstoppable movement in Preston and Lancashire better known as the temperance movement. Dr Annemarie McAllister of UCLan joins archivists Kathryn Newman and Victoria McCann to talk about the socio-political history of the movement and in particular the impact it had on the lives of women and children. 

To mark Women's History Month, archivists Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman are joined by Professor Amanda Vickery, Queen Mary University, London and Browsholme Archivist, Anna Watson to talk about women's lives in the long eighteenth century in Lancashire, by looking at diaries and court records. From the gentry life of Elizabeth Parker Shackleton to a harrowing example of domestic violence in the Quarter Sessions records, women's voices speak to us down the centuries and through our surviving written heritage.

Lancashire Archives in conversation with Bernard Melling, author of 'Fear in the Time of Covid', Dr Alan Crosby, historian and Catherine Clapperton, a records manager at Lancashire County Council. From plague in the 14th and 17th centuries, Cholera in the 19th century and the Spanish Flu and AIDS in the 20th century, pandemics have spread fear and distress among communities in Britain and Lancashire. How do they compare with our most recent experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and what is the importance of keeping records?

To mark LGBTQ+ History Month in February 2022 and the theme of politics and art, archivist Victoria McCann talks to Paul Fairweather a leading gay rights campaigner in the North West and one time Labour councillor and Mike Jackson, a prominent gay rights activist from Accrington and founding member of the Lesbian and Gay Men Support the Miners (LGSM) campaign group in 1984 and 1985, the story of which campaign was made into the film 'Pride' in 2014 by Stephen Beresford. Subjects discussed include young people and politics, gay rights activism, the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), LGSM, the Miners' Strike, the labour movement, Allan Horsfall, left-wing politics and Paul and Mike's personal experiences.

Love them or hate them the mince pie is a Christmas staple! Dr Alan Crosby along with archivists Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman talk about some of the Christmas food traditions and entertainment in Lancashire's history. So put your Christmas hat on, grab a sherry, relax and enjoy this festive podcast.

In this podcast archivists Victoria McCann and Kathryn Newman talk to Professor Robert Poole of the University of Central Lancashire about instances of witchcraft accusations held in the Quarter Sessions records at Lancashire Archives, the legend of the Witch of Woodplumpton and the notorious Lancashire Witch Trails of 1612.