Interview with Sue Gwilliam

Interview covers 1970s-2018

[00:00:04] Brief discussion of material that Sue Gwilliam has brought along to support the interview, some of which to be deposited at the National Co-operative Archive. [00:00:49] Sue outlines how she first came to be involved in the worker co-op movement, includes brief discussion of Volvo-type experiments at Clarks Shoes, Beechwood College, PERG, and Oxford Collectives meetings. [00:10:16] Discusses attempt to set up Oxford branch of ICOM, and the Old Bakehouse Trust. [00:17:44] Talks about working at Croydon CDA. [00:22:44] Discusses the Co-operative Advisory Group and material held relating to this. [00:30:20] Talks about work of Croydon CDA. [00:34:30] Discusses work with Community Accountancy Services. [00:54:14] Discusses measures taken to support pregnant workers at CAS. [00:59:45] Discusses returning to work at CAS after a period away. [01:04:34] Discusses the voluntary liquidation of CAS. [01:12:36] Discusses childcare and work at Greenwich Mural Workshop. [01:20:22] Discusses work as a career advisor. [01:23:49] Mentions co-ops which existed in Bristol at the time.

Sue Gwilliam was employed at the Work Research Group, doing research into production line work at the Clarks Shoe Factory, Somerset. She then went on to work briefly at Beechwood College, Leeds (a co-operative training college), PERG, Oxford (the Political Ecology Research Group), and was involved in Oxford Collectives Meetings and the Old Bakehouse Trust (a community workspace). Sue then went on to work in various co-operative development accountancy roles with various organisations including: Croydon CDA, the Co-operative Advisory Group, Community Accountancy Services, and Greenwich Mural workshop. Sue later worked as a careers adviser in Bristol.

(Interviewer) Philippa Lewis worked as the Project Archivist for the Working Together project (2017-2018) based at the National Co-operative Archive.

Parts of interview redacted due to personal data.

In October 2017 the National Co-operative Archive sent out a request for interview participants from the wider workers' co-operative community to take part in Working Together, a Heritage Lottery Funded project seeking to record and preserve the heritage of the workers' co-operative movement. This interview was recorded in response to this request. The interview was conducted at the National Co-operative Archive, Manchester.

Length of interview: 01:25:54

Recording Equipment: Zoom H2 Handy recorder

Recording Note: Original audio file WAV 48kHz/16 bit. Copy audio file Mp3.

This interview is licensed under a Creative Commons license (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives)

Transcript and summary of interview.

Deposited material available on request at the National Co-operative Archive.

Original recording and transcript held at the National Co-operative Archive.