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Memories by Caroline Hutton

Second Woman Joins Switchboard, in 1977

�I was the second woman on Gay Switchboard, from 1977 � 1983. That was a great learning experience, because we knew nothing (stressed). We were hopeless and terribly unprofessional, luckily a woman called Anna Durell joined and decided to make us...

Jewish Lesbians Group, Birmingham 1980s

“I was in a Jewish Lesbians Group in Birmingham when it existed in the eighties – before we tore each other apart at the seams". (laughter) "I was involved with a lot of Jewish women who put together a lot of thinking about Israel and Palestine, so i...

The Greyhound Cider House late 1970s

The Greyhound Cider House 1977-'80Caroline recalls "Gradually some lesbian women joined the women’s group and one suggested that after our group meeting on Tuesday evening, we went to the Purple Room, a private room in the Greyhound Cider House on Ho...

International Women's Day and GLF

International Women’s Day + GLF “The morning after this first night, which was deeply disappointing in many ways, but I’d had my rite of passage, I was part of a group of women doing an International Women’s Day event (March '77) and we had a rehears...

Gay Centre Committee and Switchboard 1977

Caroline was on the first Gay Community Centre Committee and Gay Switchboard 1970s:“I’m someone who gets involved in things so after coming out, I was involved with various groups. I was on the committee of the first Gay Community Centre, on the corn...

Women’s Revolutions Per Minute (WRPM)

Women's Revolutions Per Minute (WRPM):“Music was my main occupation even though it didn’t make me any money. That happened because having been to the States I’d come back with some music, I’d been to the Michigan Music festival, and met the women who...

Women’s Music: Touring

Women’s Music: Touring:“Oh and tours! The Chris Williamson tour, Alex Dobkin, Holly Near, Sweet Honey in the Rock tour! Meg Christian, and Kay Gardener and Judy Small (who is Australian, and the rest are American). I don’t drive and constantly had to...

Women’s Music: British women playing B'ham

Women’s Music: British women performing in Birmingham “British women never toured enough and that was always complete frustration to me, partly I cursed the musicians but we are quite a small country, so their idea of a tour was three dates and it wa...

Women’s Liberation Conference 1978

“I helped organise the National Women's Liberation Conference in 1978 - Oh GOD that was awful” (stress and peals of laughter). Oh god, and some of it was my fault that it was awful. (More laughter). I was 22, and I did all these things that if I met ...

Women's Liberation Conference disco 1978

Women's Liberation Conference disco 1978“I was working in a pub called the Ivy Bush, so I arranged that we would have the Friday night women's disco there but it was far too small a room, and we didn’t organise someone with a disco, a few of us broug...

Women's Liberation Conference 1978 music

Women's Liberation Conference 1978 music“I’d also taken responsibility for organising the music (for Saturday night social), I hadn’t got the right music, fortunately, Fran Rayner whose sister was in ‘Jam Today’, turned up and knew how to mix. I’d bo...

Women's Liberation Conference 1978 plenary

Women's Liberation Conference 1978 plenary:“The plenary at the end was nothing to do with me, but was deeply upsetting because everyone had reached the stage of upsettness which very often everyone gets to when they haven’t slept enough and everyone ...

Suburbs and growing older

Suburbs and growing older “I’ve mostly lived in the Moseley, Kings Heath, Balsall Heath corridor for 20 years and I really liked being part of the furniture of an area, and part of a community, not necessarily part of a lesbian community. Now I’ve mo...

Gay History Course - Richard Dyer 1986

Gay History Course - Richard Dyer 1986:“I was in a lesbian and gay history class in 1986 in Birmingham, led by Richard Dyer (Warwick University) and Jackie Stacy (later Lancaster University). Everyone knew Richard. They’d never taught it before, so i...

Going to America and non-monogamy

Going to America“I was known to some people for going off to the States, I’d been there in ‘77 and ‘78, and had a relationship with someone over there, but being young, had sex with quite a lot of women over there, that was what you did, but I stayed...

Outpost

‘Outpost’ was a free lesbian and gay newspaper which was out in the late nineties, I was working as a counsellor and for a while got lots of lesbian and gay clients, and when that fell apart there was no longer anywhere that everybody got, people wou...

Birmingham Lesbian Song c.1978

Birmingham Lesbian Song by Caroline Hutton, Lorna Eady and Betty Hagglund (local group ‘Rubyfruit’) - to be sung to the tune of ‘Lily Marlene’ I brought up my family, I left my old man And then set up house with my lover Suzanne Me and the kids we...