Earlier in this chapter the research questions of this thesis were framed and outlined. The
periodization and case studies show when and where examination of these questions takes place. In what follows it is explained how these questions will be answered. For this thesis an iterative and reflective methodology was needed to bring together a wide variety of sources; to synthesise data at each stage of collection and continue to uncover the information and themes needed to write this thesis. Adopting this approach allowed continuous evaluation of the sources and provided the flexibility to follow-up unexpected leads. It encouraged inventiveness in looking for and analysing sources and promoted awareness of the limitations of each method or source in turn. In bringing together sources and methods from different disciplines, this thesis furthermore shows the relevance of this research to those from historical, social science, and social policy disciplines.
The policy context within which the local associations were working forms a backdrop to examining their own archives. Therefore national policy documents regarding the Youth Service and national bodies have been consulted.111The papers of the national associations where they appear in local association archives are used to explore the relationship between national and local organisations.112As a non-statutory service, there was no formal legislation on the Youth Service, though the Children and Young Person s Act 1969 has been included. Hansard debates have also been used. The policy reports examined come predominantly from government-appointed committees assembled to examine a particular topic and make recommendations which the government of the day either accepted and acted upon or ignored. As official documents, they
111
Albemarle; Mary Morse, The Unattached, Leicester, NAYC, 1965; Ministry of Education, Youth and
Community Work in the 70s (Fairburn-Milson Report), London, HMSO, 1969; Children in Trouble; Department
of Education and Science, Experience and Participation (Thompson Report), London, HMSO, 1982
112
Parts of the NAYC/NABC archive are in the Modern record Centre at Warwick, some are with the Standing Conference of National Youth Voluntary Organisations (SCNYVO) papers (uncatalogued) at the UCL Institute of Education, but much is missing or inaccessible
have been heavily mediated in line with the political priorities of the day. This makes them useful for assessing the official agenda, but limits their utility as evidence of local activity.
The Liverpool Record Office (LRO) hold the archives of the Merseyside Youth Association (MYA) and its predecessor bodies, the Liverpool Boys Association (LBA), Liverpool Union of Girls and Mixed Clubs and the Liverpool Union of Youth Clubs (Liverpool Union).113The papers of this group of organisations are extensive covering annual reports, financial records, internal
publications, and minutes from several committees, giving a very detailed picture of the internal workings of the organisations. Correspondence is detailed, often including multiple copies of letters between all parties corresponding, alongside the documents pertaining to the issue under
discussion. In addition some of the everyday papers have been preserved including examples of annual returns and club visit forms. A particularly detailed set of papers held by the MYA archive are those of the Detached Youth Work (DYW) project. The surviving documents here include original grant proposal documents, correspondence, recruitment paperwork, management and advisory committee papers, reports written by the detached youth workers and documents produced for and by the conferences held about the project. In addition, one of the workers published an account of the project, and the academic from Edge Hill who supervised the project also wrote an account of its early years.114Both have been used for comparison and reveal how differences over the project remained a matter for internal discussion only. It has also been possible to interview two of the workers from the project. The DYW papers are particularly useful in giving an account of young people as the youth workers anonymously discuss individual young people they worked with.
The London Metropolitan Archive (LMA) holds the remaining archives of the London Federation of Boys Clubs (LFBC) and the London Union of Youth Clubs (London Union). These papers are less comprehensive than the corresponding archives for Liverpool, but are useful
113
In London and Liverpool Unions for Mixed and Girls Clubs became Unions of Youth Clubs between 1961- 62, for consistency, Union is used throughout
114
Denis Ince, Contact: A report on a project with unattached young people in an area of high social need in
nonetheless, comprising annual reports, financial statements, internal publications and some committee papers. It has been possible to reconstruct and triangulate information from other sources, to help where the documentary record is weak. The publication of London Youth s 100- year history (focusing initially on the LFBC) has been particularly useful to compare to surviving documents and to understand in more detail some of the key personnel from the post-war period.115
The LRO and LMA holdings pertaining to individual clubs are patchy at best. In Liverpool, a series of papers on individual clubs remains, but these were clubs undergoing post-Albemarle developments or redevelopments sponsored by the MYA in the early 1960s. This means that their papers must be considered as a product of youth work developing at this time, and considered critically in comparison to more established clubs, many of whom do not have accessible archives. This does not devalue their use as case studies, indeed they are excellent evidence of developing strands of youth work in the post-war period, but they must not be taken to be representative of all youth clubs.
Club-level papers, suitable for use as case studies are available in several instances. In Liverpool, incomplete archives have been located for the Bronte Street Youth and Community Centre, Florence Institute, Shrewsbury House Youth Club and Anfield Boys Club in addition to the personal papers of a worker who worked at the Rock Youth Club and later the DYW project. In London, the papers of Alford House in Kennington have been examined as well as holdings in the Black Cultural Archive pertaining to Moonshot Youth Club in Lewisham. Short biographies of case study clubs are in appendix two. It has been possible to locate the papers of some individual clubs, often due to the club having a present-day incarnation and a permanent building where such records could be housed. In the case of Shrewsbury House Youth Centre in Everton, having a long- standing presence on the management committee and an archive team of volunteers has enabled them to preserve and digitise some of their records. While the archives are a rich source, they contain many omissions and fragments. Association views are heavily represented in what remains,
115
but youth work reports and management committee minutes do allow the opportunity to access the views of youth workers and committee members.
In addition to primary sources held at the LRO, LMA and in modern-day incarnations of clubs, secondary literatures have been used to put clubs and associations within their context and triangulate material found in archives. In particular this thesis uses sociology produced during the period. Empirical sociology, for example, May s study of school children in Liverpool, Muchnick s study of urban renewal in Liverpool and Parker s view of delinquency on the estate where the Bronte Centre case study was sited allow this thesis to take the snapshots provided by youth clubs and put them in a wider milieu.116Even work about localities outside the case study areas has value in indicating the prominent social themes and issues which may have also shaped experiences in youth clubs at this time: for example, Rex and Moore s study of race in Birmingham provides a useful point of analysis when considering race and immigration in Lewisham and Liverpool.117In so doing, this thesis uses sociological works as historical sources, situating them alongside the social contexts that produced them and using them to look at the responses from youth work to a range of issues. Such studies are not comprehensive examinations of any given topic and they are not without fault, but they are useful sources in conjunction with those being produced by youth work.
Photographs of clubs, from club archives and of young people from Liverpool and London from between 1958 and 1985 have been used. They present the fashions and cultures of youth in clubs and serve to enable an analysis of the way that the spaces of youth clubs were used. In this regard, John Goto s photographs taken within a predominantly black youth club in Lewisham in 1977 have been particularly useful.118Contemporary photographs of former youth club buildings taken during research trips have their use in aiding understanding of how spaces have been used by young people and the place of a club in its local setting. In addition there are surviving British Pathé Newsreels. With the Duke of Edinburgh as their Patron, the LFBC, clubs, members and their notable
116
J.B. Mays, Education and The Urban Child, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1968; Muchnick, Urban
Renewal; Parker, The View From The Boys 117
John Rex and Robert Moore, Race, Community and Conflict a study of Sparkbrook, London, OUP, 1967 118
John Goto, Lovers Rock ,http://www.johngoto.org.uk/Lovers_Rock/index.htm, accessed 30thOctober 2014
milestones have been preserved in films of visits made by the Duke of Edinburgh in the 1950s and 1960s. These are vivid examples and serve greatly to illuminate the public image the LFBC wished to convey, and spent considerable effort promoting. They are one of the few sources which allow direct access to the voice and image of young people in youth clubs at this time, and for this purpose they are particularly useful, even though they have been edited to focus on their Royal Patron. Alford House in Kennington was the subject of the several films such as We are the Lambeth Boys (1959), and these films have been useful in providing a vivid snapshot of the young members, the activities of the club and the wider lives of the young members at the time.
However, the films, like the archives and photographs, have been mediated. The decision to preserve them, or author the documents in certain ways has served a purpose other than research. In so doing the voice of youth is often lost, and so are many of the nuances, informal discussions and unwritten feelings about clubs and members which must have inevitably taken place. In seeking to recover as full a picture as possible of youth work and youth club life in South London and Liverpool between 1958 and 1985 the complementary method of oral history interviewing has also been chosen.