Echoes of the Caribbean

In this episode of Echoes of the Caribbean, Gladstone Rowe came in to meet students at Oastlers School to tell them first hand about his experience relocating from Jamaica to Bradford in 1960. Actor Shaun Thomas hears some of the learners' creative writing as they put themselves in the shoes of the Windrush generation. Test your knowledge on West Yorkshire's Caribbean community in our quiz and the team tries their hand at making jerk chicken.

In our final episode of this series, we are going to look back to see how conditions for Bradford’s West Indies community has improved as the community grew bigger and stronger. Later we will talk to some of the people who are running Checkpoint, Bradford’s West Indies Community Centre, for their opinions on issues that face the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation community today. Some of the audio you can hear on this podcast was recorded nearly 40 years ago and the speakers were reflecting on their life experience as a migrant over the previous 30 years.

In this episode of 'Echoes of the Caribbean' we examine the prejudice that Bradford’s early West Indian migrants faced as they built a life here. Many people who had travelled from the Caribbean had a strong sense of their Britishness, plenty had served in the British armed forces during the war and they had an expectation that they would be welcomed in the 'mother country'.  However, this was not always the case, many of the indigenous population were not used to seeing black people and saw the migrants as a threat. Facing racism and prejudice on a daily basis made life hard for many in Bradford’s West Indian community.  But on occasions it could be even worse when hate turned to violence. In 1986 volunteers at Checkpoint West Indian Community Centre in Bradford recorded the memories of early settlers, talking about their experiences over the previous three decades settling into a new way of life in Yorkshire. We have now been given access to this treasure trove of first hand testimony that we can share with you.

Welcome to "Echoes of the Caribbean," the podcast that delves into the vibrant and poignant stories of West Indian migrants who embarked on a transformative journey to start a new life in Bradford, during the 1950s and 1960s.  In this series, we will take you on a captivating journey through time, tracing the footsteps of those who left their home in search of a better life, in the mother country and forged a new community in industrial Yorkshire. We are students at Oastlers School in Bradford.  As part of Black History Month we have teamed up with Checkpoint, Bradford’s West Indian Community Group and the charity Digital Advantage to share with you some of Bradford’s Black History. In 1986 volunteers at Checkpoint recorded the memories of elder members of the community talking about their experiences over the previous three decades settling into a new way of life in Yorkshire. In this first of three episodes we look at the first impressions of the Windrush Generation as they began a new life in Bradford.