our working lives, then and now

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:08:10 — 78.0MB)

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This was the FINAL Our Working Lives event!

A unique, one-off, bus tour of Poole’s working landscape was organised. Where passengers got the chance to travel through time on a 1959 Routemaster bus for a mystery tour to hear a soundtrack of Poole’s working landscape.

The tour  took visitors to areas in Poole not usually visited by commercial tour packages. Snaking through Poole’s industrial estates, as well as other interesting features of Poole’s economic landscape. During the tour passengers could hear everyday people talk about their working life, about Poole history and how its infrastructure has developed. Mixed with life today and its possible economic future.

Download audio: http://www.archive.org/download/SonicBusTourOfPoolesWorkingLandscape/coachTrip.mp3

Start at Poole Museum

1. Head west on The Quay toward Thames St
2. Turn right to stay on The Quay
3. Continue onto W Quay Rd/A350
4. Continue to follow W Quay Rd
5. W Quay Rd turns slightly left and becomes Holes Bay Rd/A350
6. At Holes Bay Roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Broadstone Way/A349
7. Slight left onto Cabot Ln

Route to Creekmoor industry estate

1. Turn right onto Balena Close
2. Turn right to stay on Balena Close

Nuffield industry estate

1. Starting from Cabot Ln/A349
2. Head northeast on Cabot Ln/A349 toward Technology Rd
3. Continue to follow A349
4. Turn right onto Waterloo Rd/A349
5. At A349, take the 1st exit onto Dorset Way heading to Bournemouth/A3049/Ringwood/A348/Christchurch/Nuffield/Newtown
6. Keep left at the fork
7. Turn right onto Morris Rd (Destination will be on the left)

Starting from Nuffield Rd

1. Head north on Nuffield Rd toward Hatch Pond Rd
2. Take the 1st left onto Hatch Pond Rd
3. Turn right onto Stinsford Rd
4. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Canford Heath Rd/B3074
5. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Adastral Rd
6. Keep left at the fork
7. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto the A3049 ramp
8. Merge onto A3049
9. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Old Wareham Rd
10. Slight left onto Yarrow Rd
    Go through 1 roundabout
11. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Mannings Heath Rd
    Go through 1 roundabout
12. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Ringwood Rd/B3068
    Go through 1 roundabout
13. Turn right onto Albion Close
    Destination will be on the left

Starting from Fancy Rd

1. Head southeast on Fancy Rd toward Old Wareham Rd
2. Turn right onto Old Wareham Rd
3. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A3049 heading to Poole/A350/Dorchester/A35/Upton/Hamworthy
   /Nuffield/Fleet
4. Take the exit toward Nuffield/Creekmoor
5. At A349, take the 2nd exit onto Fleets Ln
6. Continue onto Stanley Green Rd
7. Turn right onto Sterte Rd
8. Take the 1st left onto Holes Bay Rd/A350
9. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto West St/A350 heading to Hamworthy
10. Turn left onto New Orchard
11. Turn right onto High St

and back to Poole Museum.

Feedback from passengers straight after the sonic bus tour No.2

Podcast: Download (Duration: 9:22 — 10.7MB)

After the first bus tour out to Poole’s trading estates a few tweaks were made to the audio commentary. This made our second trip very popular indeed. The biggest issue seemed to have come from the top deck, where people had entered into the reminiscences of the tour and were busy talking to the friends on the bus about their memoirs. Some of the other passengers though took offence to this talk as a distracting noise and asked that they be quieter. For myself I’d introduced the audio guide as like overhearing someone talking on a bus, so the fact that others had joined in I see as a positive. It was like watching the John Krish documentaries at the cinema and hearing people chat “do you remember using a cooker like that” in the film. I see it as part of the communal experience of cinema, or in this instance the bus tour.

This time the soundtrack was better connected to where we were. It was still not perfectly in sync but was quite close with commentary reflecting the space we were about to leave or we’d maybe just left. One issue with hiring an original 1959 Routemaster was the audio system that had been installed was very basic. It only allowed you to press play at the start, so we’d had to estimate where on the journey we’d be. On the first trip we’d been around ten minutes out. This time it was only a minute or two.

Another issue was the quality of some of the audio commentary. This was a dilemma for us, as to us using these clips or not. We’d decided that they had very useful snippets of information in and the experience of being on the bus tour and hearing the audio commentary would be like overhearing people talking on the bus.

The other improvement was, even though we’d billed it as a mystery trip around Poole’s working landscape, people wanted to know where they were and where they were going! So this time we’d printed out maps with keypoints on. These were offered to people when the bordered. It was interesting to see that practically everyone took a copy.

I noticed a lot of happy, smiling, people getting off the bus. The buzz was all very positive and uplifting.

Feedback from first sonic bus tour was all very positive. Main negative, which we agreed with, is not being able to time the sounds to the place. We’d hazard a guess to where the bus would be and was out by 5-10min. And some sounds were too loud! The volume had to be switched up high while the bus was going to counter the noise of the engine, so that we could hear what was being said. Going to do a fresh edit for tomorrows tour.

passangers on top deck of bus

on bus while travelling on tour

A unique, one-off, bus tour of Poole’s working landscape organised on 24 and 26 July as part of the Our Working Lives oral history project that has explored people’s working lives in the 40s and 50s.

Travel through time on a 1959 Routemaster bus for a mystery tour to hear a soundtrack of Poole’s working landscape.

The tour, organised by Joe Stevens of digital:works, will take visitors to areas in Poole not usually visited by commercial tour packages. The tour will snake through Poole’s industrial estates, as well as other interesting features of Poole’s economic landscape.

During the tour you will hear everyday people talk about their working life, about Poole history and how its infrastructure has developed. Interspersed you will hear about life today in Poole and its possible economic future.

Joe told us how “This special event will present history live in the ‘real’ world, so that history merges with the present. It will allow passengers to hear people describe places that no longer exists while travelling through these landscapes”.

These tours are free, but places are limited. To guarantee your seat on this exclusive experience, phone Poole Museum on 01202 262600.

Leaving Poole Museum at 11am, the tour expected to last 90 minutes.

Finish back at Poole Museum where you can visit the latest exhibition ‘The Way We Worked: earning and spending in 1950s Poole’.

Poole Museum and the exhibition are free, fully accessible, and open Monday – Saturday between 10 am and 5 pm, Sunday between 12pm and 5pm.  Poole Museum, 4 High Street, Poole BH15 1BW.

Exciting news, the exhibition has now opened at Poole Museum. Spread over two floors in the museum you can see the results of our research over the last two years.