Through LGBT History Month 2013 we are sharing a selection of oral histories collected through the Heritage Lottery funded Pride in Our Past Project. Our first release focuses on the ‘Locker Tavern‘ where Mavis a barmaid tells her story along with customers Peter, Kevin and Ted.
The oral history interview, as a method of capturing history, has grown in use in recent years as a means to capture the stories and experiences of groups previously overlooked or excluded from mainstream history. This makes it a particularly suitable method for redressing the lack of LGBT experience currently held in traditional archives. The Lockyer Tavern was home to one of Plymouth’s most enduring gay bars which gained a national reputation with the question “Do you know the Lockyer?” becoming a short hand way of establishing if people in other parts of the UK were gay when they mentioned a visit to Plymouth. This video includes recollections of some of the people who knew it best.
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