Bart and Anne Venner: forestry manager & nurse

Abstract

Bart worked in the Forest of Dean as Assistant Forester, later taking responsibility for establishing and running Forest of Dean campsites and, later, in charge of timber contracts. Towards the end of his career Bart was placed in charge of dealings with private woodlands in the area. Anne worked for several years at The Dilke Hospital, later working for Marie Curie, caring for those with terminal illnesses. This oral history is part of the Voices from the Forest series uncovering the working lives of people in the Forest landscape. Overview: The ‘Voices from the Forest’ collection represents a series of oral history recordings made between 2016 and 2019 (continuing) and funded as part of the Foresters’ Forest project, a National Lottery Heritage Fund landscape partnership programme. The recordings take a biographical, life story approach to discover the occupational histories of men and women in the Forest of Dean in the last half of the twentieth century. It compliments a series of recordings, made in the 1980s by Elsie O’Livey in the Forest of Dean, that feature the life stories of people in the first half of the century. The recordings are a rich source of material for social geographers, social and cultural historians and those interested in the history of the Forest of Dean and the broad occupational history of the area. The recordings feature recollections of men who worked thorough the last days of large-scale coal mining in the area, forestry related work and their adaptation to new modes of employment in fabrication and manufacturing industries. The collection has made a special emphasis on recording the experiences of women in the domestic setting, their experiences in the factories that grew throughout the period and the diaspora providing domestic services in London, Cheltenham and elsewhere. The improvements in domestic utilities, education and opportunity are reflected across the recordings. The recordings also reflect the economic uncertainty that existed throughout the twentieth century and the persistence of traditional activities such as sheep commoning, freemining and small holding that provided alternative forms of sustainable family living. The experience of major events such as the Second World War, post war rationing, and the Foot and Mouth epidemics are covered. The recordings were made in the homes of the interviewees and consents and permissions were in accordance with GDPR (2019)