About

From the Grassroots: An Oral History of Community Politics in Devon is creating a sound archive of people involved in local politics within the county from 1945 until the present day. The project is principally funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and will run until April 2015. With the help of volunteers, we are recording political events in Devon from a local angle and charting the changes in post-1945 political campaigning. The new archive of oral histories will remain in Devon as valuable resource in political history for current and future generations.

Through our Research and dissemination activities, we aim to explore the story of Devon’s rich political heritage as told by the participants themselves. This website is part of an exciting outreach programme that includes teaching packages, a series of workshops, talks, and a touring exhibition that will be launched in January 2015.

There are plenty of ways for you to get involved in From the Grassroots. You can share your own experiences on this website in our Community, or in one of our oral history recordings. Whether you are a current or retired party activist, local party officer, MP, councillor, a relative of someone involved in local politics, or you know of an ideal oral history candidate, please Contact Us.

We also have volunteer opportunities available at points through the project. Please keep checking the Get Involved section of the website for new volunteer posts.  

From the Grassroots is managed by the History of Parliament, a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in Britain from their origins in the thirteenth century. It will expand the work currently undertaken by the History of Parliament’s national oral history project, which is building a sound archive of former MPs with the support of Dods parliamentary companion and the British Library.

From the Grassroots is based at the Devon Heritage Centre, and all our recordings will be archived there and (in part) in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office at the end of the project. To find out more about the History of Parliament, the Devon Heritage Centre, the Heritage Lottery fund and all of our partners, visit our Partners page.