Essential Aspects
I first heard Ray by chance through his contributions to "The Long March of Everyman" on Radio 4 in the early 1970s and subsequently sought out his broadcasts. His work seemed to reveal aspects of a country and culture that could have been dismissed by many as merely mundane but which he showed to be intriguing and essential. He was clearly fascinated, enthused and sometimes outraged by the subjects he covered. His delivery was unique - engaging, provoking, often humorous and always entertaining. After a recent search through Genome and the Radio Times archives I was both pleased and surprised to see just how prolific he was. It seems a great shame that the BBC hasn't made more of this available. I am so pleased to come across a site helping to keep his work and legacy alive.
Brian Fitzgerald

Gosling, GOSLING!
Dear Ray Gosling, what a wonderful character. He first delighted me as a young reporter on Granada tv. He was rather anarchic for a live programme and I recall my mum and I laughing away as his boss roared "Gosling, GOSLING" in a futile attempt to restrain him. It remained a family catchphrase for out of control situations, and we of course became committed fans of his work.
I think it may have been Bill Grundy in the studio trying to get Ray to do his bidding, but I can't be sure. 
Thank you so much for the website and archive, it was lovely to hear his voice again but I shall ration the playlist for when I self isolate!
Rita Corrigan

​Stephen M Hornby, writer of ‘The Burnley Buggers’ Ball’ a new play that features Ray Gosling as one of the lead characters, guest blogs for us on the challenges of finding a voice for Ray.
 
I’ve been the National Playwright in Residence for LGBT History Month since 2014.  I have written some history plays and I have commissioned other people to write them.  We’ve dealt with a police raid on a drag ball in 1880, the scandal created in Bristol by Georgian sodomy trials and the reanimated corpse of a forgotten trans pioneer.  We’ve never dealt with anything like Ray Gosling.
 
Ray Gosling chaired a meeting entitled ‘Homosexuals & Civil Liberty’ in Burnley Central Library on 30th July 1971 at 8pm.  The local press comment on how well he chaired a confrontational meeting at which the atmosphere was described as ‘electric’.  This meeting is now becoming viewed as the birth of the civil rights movement for gay men in Britain.  And I’m dramatising it in a new play called, ‘The Burnley Buggers’ Ball’.  So, I have to find Ray’s voice.  
 
Dramatising something that is in living memory is new ground for LGBT History Month.  I can talk to people who remember the meeting, people who were at the meeting, and even, in one case, people who actually spoke at the meeting.  I can’t speak to Ray though.  But there is a wonderful legacy to draw from, the documentaries, the radio programmes and, of course, this archive.  Ray’s papers in relation to the meeting and his diary for the period have been provided (by the wonderful Clare Tebbutt), perused and duly considered.   I even have a member of the cast who met Ray.  She was a big fan of his work and when she approached him and was unable to focus her appreciation into specific adjectives in relation to specific programmes, was witheringly dismissed by Ray in a textbook example of how not to respond to a fan.
 
After many hours listening to him present material, I have to say, of varied quality, I’m struck by several things, conclusions of my own that form the characterisation of the Ray that I have written.  He was very principled and cared about ordinary people.  He didn’t suffer fools at all and always thought he knew best, even when he palpably didn’t.  He was a bit of a blagger and a lot of a visionary.  He probably wasn’t very easy to like, but he would be someone you respected, someone who would teach you valuable life lessons, someone you would always remember.  His judgment may have been off sometimes and he may have drunk too much, but there’s a fire, a kind of nobility and a strong instinct for what’s important in life and what’s at the core of people.  That’s the Ray I’ve written anyway.  I think I’ve chimed some of the right notes at least, and I hope that readers of this blog will come the performances to judge for yourselves.
 
‘The Burnley Buggers’ Ball’ is performed as part of a double-bill with ‘Burnley’s Lesbian Liberator’ for LGBT History Month 2017.  Performances at Burnley Central Library are 18th and 25th of Feb 2017 at 12 noon and 2pm, lasting around 80 minutes. Tickets are FREE and available on Eventbrite. The showcase performance is at the Martin Harris Centre, Manchester on 24th Feb at 7.30pm.  Tickets are £8/£5 concession on the door or at http://ow.ly/DTWK307a4S8. A final free performance is at Bluecoat in Liverpool on 4th March at 5.30pm, tickets again through Eventbrite.  Updates on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using @stephenmhornby  @inkbrew and/or  #burnleyplays
 

In the 1970s, Burnley was the UK’s battleground for gay and lesbian rights, with two ground-breaking public struggles at either end of the decade.  To mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act (1967), LGBT History Month has commissioned two brilliant new dramas from Inkbrew Productions to recreate this amazing forgotten history.  Both plays, funded by the Arts Council of England and private patrons, will be performed in February 2017 at the original sites of the events in Burnley and as a showcase in Manchester.
 
The two plays will be performed as a double bill created with professional actors, writers and directors working with volunteers and a series of local community partners:  Burnley Youth Theatre, Lancs LGBT, Burnley Mechanics, Burnley & Pendle Libraries and Hidden Histories.  This will be a unique collaborative project for Burnley and a first for LGBT History Month nationally.
 
The Burnley Buggers’ Ball, by award-winning playwright Stephen M Hornby, tells the story of a transformative public meeting held at Burnley Central Library in 1971.  The meeting was about the right to open the first ever LGBT centre in old Co-Operative Society premises, and saw activists in London join forces with activists from the North West to take on the Establishment.
 
Burnley’s Lesbian Liberator, by Abi Hynes, dramatises the political activism of Mary Winter, a bus driver sacked for nothing more than wearing a ‘Lesbian Liberation’ badge and unsupported by her trade union.  She fought back against her employers in 1978 using a network of women’s groups across the UK, and staging a demo outside the Burnley Bus Station.
 
Russell T Davies, the TV writer and producer famous for Doctor Who and Queer As Folk,is a patron of the project and said:  “This is precisely what LGBT History Month should be doing, uncovering hidden history, finding great stories and bringing them to life again for new audiences.  And who knew they'd both be about Burnley!  It's marvellous to think of this mill town in East Lancashire being the centre of the struggle for UK gay and lesbian rights in the 1970s.”
 
Professor Sue Sanders, National Chair of LGBT History Month said:  “These are two little known but crucial events in UK LGBT history.  These are the watershed moments of resistance, of self-assertion and collective organisation.  These are the moments when we as a community first stood up in public and said, ‘NO’. Our work is to unbury these stories that prove that as a community we have been active, aware and clear about the work that needs to be done to ensure both individual rights and civil rights. The dramatisation of these stories brings to life the struggle that all minority communities have gone through to gain their rights.”
 
The plays will be staged at Burnley Central Library on 18th and 25th of February 2017 at 12 noon and 2pm.  Each performance lasts approximately 75 minutes and is free on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.  The showcase performance is at the Martin Harris Centre in Manchester on 24th February at 7.30pm.  Tickets are £8/£5 concession available on the door or in advance from the Centre.
(See interview on Home Page for Ray's comments about Burnley!)

Thursday 21st July at 19:00–21:00 in UTC+01
The National Videogame Arcade
24-32 Carlton Street Nottingham NG1 1NN

An evening celebrating the life and legacy of Ray Gosling (1939-2013), drawing on his archive. There will be speakers, images and clips from the archive and an opportunity to share memories.

ALL WELCOME
FREE ENTRY

James Walker, Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities at Nottingham Trent University, in conversation with Colin Haynes, archivist of the Ray Gosling collection, at the Nottingham Trent University Clifton site.

Comment
I grew up listening to his voice and drinking in his compassion and humanity. Your excellent site led me to the documentary series he made on Maryport in 1979. A fine piece of work that reminded me of his strength - he let the people he was working with have their voice. 

Nick Wood
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3pPsUpOQYiY


Comment
What a great archive of such a significant Nottingham writer. It must have been a real labour of love sifting through it all.
Good to have broadcasts and letters so readily available.
Thank you.

Sue Dymoke

Presented by Bob Dickinson and Marion Hewitt, with films from the NWFA, and a display of documentary material from the Ray Gosling Archive at Nottingham Trent University, and Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives.

Ray Gosling (1939-2013) was one of the most original presenters on British television screens as well as on the radio. He was also a great writer. This free event, curated by his friend and colleague Bob Dickinson, brings together material from Ray’s extensive archive of documents and meticulous notes, with extracts from some of his best TV documentaries, made between the 1960s until the 1990s. Many of them are about places, and many of those places are in the North West. One of Ray’s talents was to get under the surface of the English communities during the time when “industrial” as a way of describing them was giving way to “post-industrial”. Throughout, Ray meditated on change, and focused on people as a way of measuring it. He loved talking to them, finding out about them, and, when justice was lacking, fighting for their rights. He could be hilariously funny, he could get angry, but he never patronised anyone.

5.30 - 7.30 Entry free, but booking required, see
http://www.librarylive.co.uk/event/ray-gosling-film-night/

It was only about six months ago I stood in Nottingham Trent’s Arts and Humanities department, in a room of Ray’s archives. My brother had told me, back in 2005, of the rescue by the university of his papers from his big house. Then last year, after his death I had helped to box more papers from his flat. The more papers were about 30 large boxes, lots of box files and more, all jostling for space in an already crammed room. How to make order of this . . . the content of the boxes - just amazing . . .  but . . . you would find a draft script next to jottings made on a train trip to a sea-side town, with an allotment catalogue and a letter from an irate radio listener who was so angry that Ray had not visited the back room tea shop on one of his travels, just a witty, interesting and wonderful mix, set amongst magazines, newspaper cuttings, plastic bags and beer mats.

How to make this collection into an organised archive . . . well six months down the line with help from Professor John Goodridge and hours of toil from Colin Haynes there is progress. We now have nearly 200 box files, numbered and listed by alphabetical subject. The number of large boxes is dwindling as the contents get put into their subject box file. Recordings are also being listed and local interest, in particular St Ann’s history, collected together. It is very rewarding seeing the start of a system and perhaps a glimmer of these being made available for others to enjoy and use. It is also a snapshot of a forty-year period of social change, the early days of popular television. Seeing the handwritten notes crafted into a television or radio programme - a treat.

What now? Well there are more boxes to come, Ray had a work room in Manchester which is being sorted to join the rest in Nottingham Trent and I hope that next year we can start to see how to get this archive to a point where it can be used and enjoyed. I plan to update over the months and please contact with any ideas, comments etc.

Juliet Grant

Oh!  - found in one of the boxes - Ray’s comment on the archive

" Left to my own will my concern is for my papers – 90% of which should be taken to the tip and enter the district heating scheme. True, but the 10% aye to find the 10%. The paper mountains are a heck of a mess – but within them is quite a lot of valuable stuff – archive value, intrinsic value and as a whole a museum of its own worth. It might need more shelving. Thanks Ray. "

The sale raised £1630 which was donated to Hayward House and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum. Nottingham Post ran an article:
http://www.nottinghampost.com/Chance-Ray-s-books/story-22909105-detail/story.html