Braunstone Memories

The East Midlands Oral History Archive at the Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester, is pleased to host this website for the East Midlands Economic Network Ltd 's 'Braunstone Memories' project.

The village of Braunstone, the Braunstone housing estate, and Braunstone Park, all lie to the south west of the City of Leicester. Until the 1920s this area was mainly farmland but the post-WW1 housing needs of the city led to the land being purchased from the Winstanley family and a new housing estate being built.

Families started moving to Braunstone in the 1930s and for many people the new, modern, houses were a great improvement on the inner city homes they had left behind. However, as is apparent from the voices heard in these recordings, the reputation of Braunstone has fluctuated over the years and has often been bad. Recently, a government scheme, ‘A New Deal for Braunstone’, was set up to spend £49.5 million to regenerate the area. The memories recorded for this project stretch from the early days on the estate in the 1930s up to the very recent impact of the 'New Deal'.

This is the third project by EMEN that EMOHA has hosted on our website and along with 'Preserving Asian Heritage' and 'Belgrave Memories' if forms part of a body of work that not only documents the history of some of Leicester's communities, but also attempts to create greater understanding between the people of these communities.

Video Clips

Click here to see brief extracts from the interviews.

Photo Gallery

Click here to see photographs from the project.

More information

Websites with further information.

Last updated: 02/09/2008
East Midland Oral History Archive Web maintainer
This document has been approved by the head of department or section.