MO Diary Day Update

A year on from our partnership with the University of Greater Manchester and Bolton Library and Museum Services, we’re still keen to encourage in a interest amongst the residents of the town to participate in the annual Mass Observation Diary Day, held on the 12th May and organised by Mass Observation Archive, based at the University of Sussex.

To take part in the 2025 Diary Day on Monday 12th May, please check out the Mass Observation Archive’s websitefor more details. Let’s make sure Bolton stays on the MO map!

In case you’re wondering what has happened after sending your diary and completing the consultation questions last year, please read on . . .

In 2024 we really committed to reconnecting with our Worktown links, a little neglected after Dave Burnham’s passing. He was our archive explorer and researcher par excellence. An immediate in for us was presented by the University’s Writing the North project which we got stuck into and Sussex Uni’s annual MO Day. Julia fused these with the additional input of Daniella Baldock, a filmaker at Uni of London who was taken over by the whole MO phenomenon and Bolton itself. So we had a umbrella of inputs, specialisms producing good results and nothing seemed more natural than making Bolton Observed our Town of Culture theme, through photography, writing, radio shows and music culminating in our showcase at Bolton Central Library Lecture Theatre. An outstanding team effort highlighting the talent and interest of the Bolton public.

Dave Morgan, Director, Live from Worktown, May 2025.

We’re pleased to say the diaries and consultation submissions sent in to us have inspired a number of events and activities, such as the multi-disciplinary Bolton Observed events that Live from Worktown held to celebrate Bolton as the 2024/5 Greater Manchester Town of Culture.

The team at the University of Bolton have also been busy analysing all the submissions and have created an in-depth academic article entitled Mass Observation, Counterculture and the ‘Art of Living’.

Last year a small team from the University Centre for Literature and Community collaborated with Live from Worktown on publicising MO Diary Day in the town. We also used this as an opportunity to ask potential diarists some ‘consultation questions’ about Bolton as a town of culture. This led to a number of valuable outcomes including a research paper on “Mass Observation, counterculture and the ‘Art of Living”’ for the journal Humanities, a presentation at the national Being Human festival in November 2024, the production of the LfW anthology Bolton Observed, and the town of culture celebrations. The university team benefited enormously from the collaboration with LfW and are using the findings from the consultation as a basis for further research activities aimed at improving cultural life in Bolton.

Prof. Jill Marsden, Professor of Literature and Philosophy, The University of Greater Manchester, May 2025.

You can read the article here.