Photograph of Quilt Display at Society's Open Day at Schwerkolt Cottage and Museum Complex for Heritage Festival 2000.nunawading & district historical society, heritage festival 2000

Coloured photograph of Wood Turners' Display for Society's Open Day at Schwerkolt Cottage and Museum Complex for Heritage Festival 2000.nunawading & district historical society, heritage festival 2000

Coloured photo of Society's Display in Nunawading Library for Heritage Festival 2000. Theme was 'Our Sporting Heritage' to honour 2000 Olympic Games.heritage festival 2000, nunawading & district historical society

Coloured photo of Society's Display in Nunawading Library for Heritage Festival 2000. Theme was 'Our Sporting Heritage' in honour of 2000 Olympic Games.heritage festival 2000, nunawading & district historical society

Coloured photo of Spinners & Weavers Group Display at Schwerkolt Cottage and Museum Complex for Society's Open Day during Heritage Festival 2000.nunawading & district historical society, heritage festival 2000

Coloured photo of Children taking part in Sack Race at Society's Open Day at Schwerkolt Cottage & Museum Complex for Heritage Festival 2000.nunawading & district historical society, heritage festival 2000

Coloured photo of Society's Display in Nunawading Library for Heritage Festival 2000. Theme was 'Our Sporting Heritage' in honour of 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.heritage festival 2000, nunawading & district historical society

Coloured photo of Society's Display in Nunawading Library for Heritage Festival 2000. Theme was 'Our Sporting Heritage' in honour of 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.heritage festival 2000, nunawading & district historical society

Coloured photo of Children taking part in 3-legged race during Society's Open Day at Schwerkolt Cottage & Museum Complex during Heritage Festival 2000.heritage festival 2000, nunawading & district historical society

Coloured photo of Children taking part in Painting Display at Society's Open Day at Schwerkolt Cottage & Museum Display for Heritage Festival 2000. Barbara Rogalski and Joan Henwood assisting.henwood, joan, rogalski, barbara, heritage festival 2000, nunawading & district historical society

May Sewell was born in Beechworth in 1917, her paternal grandparents had come to Beechworth from Ireland and her maternal grandparents from Scotland. She was the youngest of five siblings and the only one to be born in a hospital rather than at home. May loved growing up and living in Beechworth, and fondly recalls knowing all her neighbours, meeting friends at the pictures, attending girl guides, picking wildflowers around the gorge, participating keenly in the Church of England choir and dances, and the big Easter festivals. May worked various jobs before getting married. After leaving school at fifteen, May learnt dressmaking with Lal Anderson (and was delighted with her wage of two and six pence a week) and then went on to learn tailoring with Mr Charles. May then worked in the dining rooms at the Commercial Hotel and Hotel Nicholas. May was at the Hotel Nicholas for seven years but stopped when she got married as female employees were not asked to stay once they were married. May married her husband in 1944 and had known him since school. They went on to have six children, sadly three did not live past infancy. Her first children were twin girls who died six hours after birth. May briefly discusses the difficulty in grieving her twin daughters, the lack of available support, and the expectancy to carry on. Her next child, a son named Ian James, died when he was only ten months old from a tumour. May described Ian James as a lovely boy. May had multiple connections to the Zwar Brothers' Beechworth Tannery. Her father and then her three brothers worked there, and also her husband for a short period of time. The tannery was a major employer in Beechworth, and May having multiple family members employed by the tannery underlines the significant role of the tannery in Beechworth. May described her husband as very hardworking, he worked as a cleaner overnight at the Ovens and Murray Hospital for the Aged while during the day tended his cattle and sheep farm. This oral history recording was part of a project conducted by Jennifer Williams in the year 2000 to capture the everyday life and struggles in Beechworth during the twentieth century. This project involved recording seventy oral histories on cassette tapes of local Beechworth residents which were then published in a book titled: Listen to what they say: voices of twentieth century Beechworth. These cassette tapes were digitised in July 2021 with funds made available by the Friends of the Burke. Miss May Sewell’s account of her life in Beechworth is historically and socially significant to the cultural heritage of the region. May in reflecting on her experiences of leisure opportunities, town festivals, work available for women, leaving the workforce once married, the tannery, post-natal care, grief and child mortality provide essential historic, economic, social, and healthcare insights. May’s oral history recording is part of a larger collection of oral histories recorded by Jennifer Williams in 2000, collectively they provide invaluable insights into Beechworth during the 20th century, much of the information in these oral histories would be lost if not documented and missed in the interpretation of tangible objects. This is a digital copy of a recording that was originally captured on a cassette tape. The cassette tape is black with a horizontal white strip and is currently stored in a clear flat plastic rectangular container. It holds up 40 minutes of recordings on each side.Mrs May Sewellmay sewell, oral history, jennifer williams, listen to what they say: voices of twentieth century beechworth, beechworth church of england, easter festival, beechworth girl guides, hospital birth 1917, lal anderson, tailor beechworth, commercial hotel, hotel nicholas, zwar brother's beechworth tannery, ovens and murray hospital for the aged, dressmaking beechworth, beechworth cinemas, paul voglis

Vol. 5, No. 1, Mar-Apr 2000 Month of Festivals Supplement CONTENTS Gyuto Monks in Eltham 10 BANYULE FESTIVAL 13 WERE ST HILL CLIMB 15 BOROONDARA WRITERS' FESTIVAL 16 WARRANDYTE VILLAGE FESTIVAL 18 DIAMOND CREEK TOWN FAIR 19 TEMPLESTOWE VILLAGE FESTIVAL 20 RECIPES From leading Chefs 21 CAIRO TO CRACOW Middle Eastern Music at Montsalvat 22 POETRY 23 FESTIVAL OF KITES 24 "Peter Dougherty has been involved in the local art scene for many years. As publisher and editor of the arts magazine Artstreams, his comments on the various branches of the arts are widely respected. His "The Arts" column in the Diamond Valley Leader presents a brief summary for a much wider cross section of the local community. Peter also operates his own gallery and the Artstreams Cafe at the St Andrews market. Peter has a wealth of knowledge about present day and historical aspects of local art and artists." - Eltham District Historical Society Newsletter No. 161, March 2005Colour front and back cover with feature articles and literary pieces with photographs and advertisements printed in black and white. 36 pages, 30 cm. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Nov. 1996) - Vol. 10, no. 5 (summer ed. 2005/​06) art streams