Published at 09:50, Friday, 30 October 2009

WHENEVER you need cheering up, get along to Hexham library and have a look at some old issues of the Hexham Courant.

Even at times of grave national emergency, the Courant was still sorting the wheat from the chaff, and printing the chaff.

I had occasion to look at the 1940 file the other day, when Britain was standing alone against the German war machine.

As the nation trembled, and Mr Churchill was planning to hot-foot it to Canada when the stormtroopers crossed the Channel, the Courant was dealing with much more important matters.

The first paper of the year was not concerned with things in foreign parts, but featured a front page promoting bronchial emulsion prepared by Pattinson’s the chemist, at half a crown a large bottle.

Inside, a full page was devoted to Robb’s sale, with ladies – and some gentlemen – doubtless clamouring to get their hands on directoire knickers in Heavy Art Silk, in peach, apple, rose and lupin at two bob a pair.

It wasn’t until page five that readers learned that rationing of butter, bacon, ham and sugar was to start the following Monday, alongside the news that admission to Newton and District Farmers’ Ball was five shillings.

There was outrage in Corbridge because someone had used a penknife to carve their name on the public seats erected to mark the Coronation of King George VI.

By April, there were grumbles about evacuees causing £2 17s 7d-worth of damage to furniture at a house in Allendale, and “marked slackness” in observing blackout regulations.

The start of the otter hunting season was duly noted, and the shooting of a billy goat at Horsley merited more coverage than the shooting across the Channel, with two full columns being devoted to the dreadful capricide.

An ironmonger’s son from Newcastle was fined £1, with 9s costs, for taking a picture of his friend sitting on a motorbike near Prudhoe, because there was a wireless mast in the background, and written permission had not been obtained from the Secretary of War.

The war didn’t make the front page until nearly half way through the year, when an apologetic note on the front page said: “To meet the exigencies of newspaper production in war time, the Hexham Courant breaks with tradition by publishing news on its front page.

“The changeover will in no way affect the character of the paper, which will continue to give a full and complete local news service.

“The new make-up, dictated by war time conditions, will no doubt be unfamiliar to readers at first, but we are sure the decision will help readers.”

The main two stories on that pioneering page were the fact that two Prudhoe farmers had been fined for watering their milk, and that a woman from Mickley had had her 13 children taken away from her after she was found helplessly drunk on the floor of her house.

There was, though, a brief warning to watch out for German paratroopers, who were thought to be carrying milking stools as well as machine guns when they landed, so as to blend in with rustic locals.

Things did get serious in June, when a convoy of the wounded members of the British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk arrived at the town’s hospital.

Many of the soldiers had only the clothes they stood up in, but within a matter of hours they were groaning under a mountain of clothing, razors, tobacco, matches, food and fruit donated by well-wishers from the town.

They were deeply desperate times, but the Courant was soon back to normal, for the front page lead the week after Dunkirk was marking the fact that people in Allendale were looking after their gardens in a much better fashion.

There was even an air of jollification around, as the paper reported some of the items which had been handed in as part of the war department’s scrap metal drive.

As well as Hexham Abbey’s railings, the offerings included a German officer’s helmet from World War One, and a pair of whaling harpoons!

The long arm of the law also reached out to Wark, where a farmer’s wife was fined £1 for selling eggs at 4d each rather than the 3d laid down by Government.

She claimed she charged more because she thought the large eggs might be double-yolkers!

The Internet is all very well, but you can’t beat the delights to be found in your local newspaper.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk