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100 years of dale’s history to go online
Jul 28, 2010
Tens of thousands of pages from almost 100 years of the Teesdale
Mercury will soon go online – offering a unique source of information for students, teachers, local historians and family history researchers.
Every available copy of the paper from its first edition on July 4, 1855 to December 27, 1950 (the paper was founded a year earlier but was originally called the Teesdale Advertiser) has been electronically scanned into a massive database which anyone with internet access will be able to search free of charge.
The website is the work of the Teesdale Mercury Archive Project, managed by local volunteers interested in using the paper as a historical resource. Its chairman, Roy Tranter, said the archive is as “an amazing opportunity to explore and learn more about the history of Teesdale”.
Old copies of the paper are held at the Mercury offices, The Bowes Museum and The Witham Hall, but these collections are incomplete and in such poor condition that public access to them is severely limited.
Final checks on the database are now taking place and it is hoped it will go online within the next few months.
Mercury editor Adrian Braddy said: “This is a fantastic project which will open up access to a wealth of information about Teesdale’s
past.”
More than 5,200 editions of the Mercury were produced in the paper’s first century of publication, recording a wealth of information about the everyday lives of Teesdale people, as well as chronicling the impact of national and international developments on the dale.
As well as creating the open internet access to the archive, grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Foyle Foundation include funds to make this valuable heritage resource available to primary and secondary schools in the dale. The project team hopes the website will be extensively used by children studying history, and they are now looking for someone to liaise with the schools and oversee the creation of resources and projects using the website.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for someone enthusiastic about local history – perhaps with a background in teaching – to get involved in this pioneering programme,” said Mr Tranter. “The job will involve about one morning or afternoon a week, initially for six months and the hours are flexible.”
Anyone interested can contact the project secretary Jim Sewell through The Witham Hall in Barnard Castle on 01833 631107 or by email to witham3@tiscali.co.uk