Whilst waiting for a train connection at York railway station the other day, I pounced on the opportunity to purchase a copy of the Gazette & Herald, self-proclaimed as “Ryedale’s biggest selling weekly newspaper”.
It turns out it has one of those wonderful sections which details the social minutiae of parochial life, divided by village. Some of the villages have incredible names, such as Brompton By Sawdon and, my favourite, Huttons Ambo.
If you want to know who made the picnic, whose wheelchairs were pushed by whom and the scores from the local bridge club, look no further than the Gazette & Herald.
This stuff is genuinely printed for wider consumption.
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I’m left desperate for more information after reading this…what did they have in their picnics? Who was still hungry after their picnic and needed further sustenance at the Cafe?
Who is the unnamed 3rd non-walker?
Who came 3rd in the Bridge Club competition?
Sewerby Park sounds lovely, doesn’t it. I wonder how it got its name.
I hope you readers appreciate these pages … They’re a right bastard to sub.
When I was researching local newspapers from a century ago I’d find front pages that offered detailed blow by blow accounts of local functions like the unveiling of a statue that reprinted whole speeches and also included the menu, a review of what people thought of the food and full list of the music that was played. If it was a war memorial, all of the people being commemorated would be listed too. Oh and a full history of the statue or memorial from commissioning to production.
But here’s the thing. They were invaluable. Most local councils don’t have this information any more so much of the work I did was cribbed from these articles. These kinds of clubs and societies are dying out and I’ll bet that in another hundred years, someone studying the social history of the country will be able to add these to a much wider study. Bill Coburn might have done great things.
You’re right. And I like the fact these extracts awill be stored by the National Archives forever. They keep a record of all publications they can, however small. This means the achievement of 61.4 percent in the bridge club by Maurice Woolacott and Robin Wardell will always be recorded. Skills.