Background to Switchboard's History Project

In 1999, Nottinghamshire Living History Archives won a National Lottery award to produce 90 local history projects. Switchboard successfully applied for the funding to carry out one of these projects.  The funding was not in cash: it covered expenses, loan of equipment and the cost of printing and photography.

The project has since developed the following resources (included in the list are some resources gathered by Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage), most of  which are available for use during training events, exhibitions and conferences, for academic research.  Switchboard's finances have to be directed to maintaining its basic services, so we cannot provide these resources free - but where a charge is made, it will be at the lowest possible rate. 

1. A book. "The history of a lesbian and gay telephone helpline". 88 pages. Some of the content has been transferred to the website. It looks at local and national LGB developments from 1967 to 2006 and uses Switchboard, and the experiences of the people who have been involved with Switchboard as a thread linking the events together. The version of the book referred to is an updated  edition published in September 2006 with the aid of Boots Charitable Trust.

2. An automatic Powerpoint presentation consisting of pictures of "famous" LGBT people along with their names and occupations. The face changes every 3 seconds.  At the moment, there are 600 faces ... but the number keeps growing. The presentation is also available in forms where it is broken down into separate smaller presentations for:

LGBT BME people

Lesbians and bisexual women

LGBT Sportspeople

Transgender people

"Name the Face!" i.e. just the picture and occupation without the name

3. An interactive CD ROM. Users can select from: pictures and notes on Nottingham's gay pubs and clubs; examination of the types of calls received by Switchboard; areas of discrimination experienced by LGB people; a brief history of Switchboard; a quiz. This was assembled in 2000, so parts of it are out of date.

4. A display of famous lesbian, gay and bisexual people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities - names, dates, picture + potted biography. Also available in Microsoft Publisher format. We also have some positive image posters of Asian lesbians and gay men from the Naz Project.

5. Pink Professions. A display of 48 (so far) A4 posters with 4 L or G or B or T people for each profession e.g. ARTISTS: Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Maggi Hambling, Michaelangelo. SCIENTISTS: Sir Isaac Newton, George Washington Carver, Alfred Kinsey, Alan Turing etc

6. The Timelines from this website printed out as a chronological display - also available in Microsoft Publisher format

7. A sequence of 16 laminated copies of front pages from Gay News (1972-1984).

8. Three LGBT History quizzes

9. An LGBT Famous Faces Bingo game i.e. faces instead of numbers.

The faces are also available in Microsoft Publisher format.

10. 20 CDs of recordings of the views and reminiscences of local LGB people whose ages range from 25 to 85. "Highlights" from the above have been assembled and also divided up to cover areas such as "Coming out", "Meeting people", "the pre-1967 era".

11. 2 maps of the world showing (in different ways) where and how homosexuality is punished. (see the "Traveller beware" section in the Project's Themes)

12. An automatic Powerpoint presentation of Switchboard's work and history - also available as 30 A4 posters.

13. An automatic Powerpoint presentation of a "Nottingham-centred, biased,  sideways look at LGBT History since the 1960s".

14. "Notes and Queeries" (See the Project's Themes section) in A4 poster form

15. A CD of a 15 minute programme recorded for BBC Radio Nottingham in 1976 by the Nottingham CHE Group - which demonstrates that we invented "the only gay in the village" 25 years before Little Britain.

16. Every copy of "Chimaera" (1972-1982), the newsletter of the Nottingham CHE group.

17. Copies of every edition of the local LGB freesheet, QB.

18. Gay Old Times - 15 (so far) A4 posters on people and places linked to Nottinghamshire's LGBT history. Gay Old Times is produced by Tony Bilton, of Pegasus Gay History Tours.

19. Posters dealing with the treatment of gay men in Nazi Germany and of the memorials that have been established to victims of the "gay holocaust".

20. Posters dealing with examples of homophobia, homophobic bullying in schools (including homophobic murders) and the effects of homophobia on mental health.

21. 30 posters showing the development of Nottingham Pride since 1997.

22. Gay Badges from the 1970s and 1980s and their meanings.

23. Birds, bees and educated fleas. A look at homosexuality in animals.

24. Posters dealing with lesbian and gay venues in Nottingham.

25. The Police and Us - pre and post 1967 (12 posters)

26. The Council and us - 1977 to 2007  (9 posters)

27. Polari - how bona to varda your dolly old eke (5 posters

28. Posters dealing with LGBT social and support groups (6 posters)

29. A copy of the 1978 CHE tape/slide kit ("Homosexuality - a fact of life")intended to be used to clarify the issue of homosexuality to school teachers.

30. Radio Trent phone-in programmes from 1980 and 1981.

31. Many relevant DVDs including those from organisations such as Stonewall, The Law Centres Federation, Notts County Council, Outburst LGBT Youth Group, NHS, Age Concern ...

If anyone would like access to the resources, either contact us through the Guestbook page or e-mail Switchboard using the Websites page.  Similarly, if you have photos or comments which could be added to the site, contact us through the Guestbook.