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Manor Mercury Community Newspaper


History dude

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I was going to post these a bit since but they were too big for the uploader!

For a number of years I was the Production Editor of a community newspaper in Sheffield called the Manor Mercury. We didn't have enough money to run it properly but we did our best!

It all started in the early 80's when a new project started called Manor Employment Project. It was based in the old public works depot near the Parkway where the hotel is now. Now anybody who has read the Star knows if it has the oppertunity it will have a go at the Manor Estate. So several local people wanted to put some good news about the estate and also get across important information to those who lived there about what was happening. So a chap called Neil Coulson working from the MEP as it became known, started the paper going. For reasons I don't know since I wasn't on board for the first two issues, it ceased production after two issues. However after the idea of the paper was still floating around. Anyway to cut a long story short those pushing the idea around found out that I was into local history, so as they were starting it up again, somebody writing local history would make stories for the paper! In the end I did more that that ;-)

The idea was to get local Manor people to write the stories and we found the odd one or two, but the truth was that most people on the estate were not journalists. So we had the idea of linking up with Richmond College students doing journalistic courses. The college would send about a dozen students who would have to write up "real" stories intervewing people/workers on the Manor and we would print them up! The college loved it because they got real experinance and out of the classroom! As one of the staff said to me they were nearly all middle class "kids" so sending down to the Manor was a real shock for some of them!

The Mercury got enough material to come out every month out of this and was "milked" for stories by the Star itself! Though the editor sent a letter to Neil saying that the Mercury was "competiton" to the Star :olol

The only problem was that the reporters did get things wrong from time to time being just students, so the paper was often in trouble with some orgaisation or other till we got a proper system in place, but slip up did happen! :unsure:

The archive has landed in my laps. So I've digitised the first two done by Neil and also the production mock up we did for the first under my control.

Sadly the first two will not load even though they are under the 12MB limit! It says the reason being "no file selected for upload" :rolleyes:

So here is just the test sheets:

Mercury Test Sheets 1984.pdf

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Email 'em to SheffieldHistory@Gmail.com please; there are two of us have access to that email account, I'm one and I don't go there ! he he

Problem solved. If nothing else we can scan it to multiple jpegs - I've got two nice machines at work that do that.

Sadly the first two will not load even though they are under the 12MB limit! It says the reason being "no file selected for upload" :rolleyes:

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The Manor Mercury sounds a very interesting publication and I have enjoyed reading through the first .pdf

Looking forward to more History Dude.

Strangely I have not come across it before even though I lived very close to the Manor, but not actually on the estate and I have several friends who are on the manor.

Hey, I have got the entire archive (missing 1 copy I think) of the monthly Sheffield Steam Society newsletter from February 1973 to October 2008 when I resigned my commitee responsibilities, one of which was newsletter editor.

One day I may get around to digitising it and possibly posting some of it.

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I'm famously not big on transport, but I know people that are - we'll have it all please Dave - and, for newer Members, we'll have anything - scan it, email it, send it to me by post (paper, memory stick, carrier pidgeon etc) if you wish and we'll get it on here - the more, the merrier.

Hey, I have got the entire archive (missing 1 copy I think) of the monthly Sheffield Steam Society newsletter from February 1973 to October 2008 when I resigned my commitee responsibilities, one of which was newsletter editor.

One day I may get around to digitising it and possibly posting some of it.

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I'm famously not big on transport, but I know people that are - we'll have it all please Dave - and, for newer Members, we'll have anything - scan it, email it, send it to me by post (paper, memory stick, carrier pidgeon etc) if you wish and we'll get it on here - the more, the merrier.

Now with over 35 years of newsletters, produced at the rate of 1 per month with an average of 4 sides of A4 per issue that could be a task nearly as big as the Sheffield breweries project that someone is working on.

I don't actually own the copyright on all this material (except that the 1999 to 2008 newsletters were done by me) BUT the previous newsletter editor, Eric Stanley, had deposited a second copy of the archive with the Fairground Archive at Sheffield University which is supposed to be fot public viewing.

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Can you make enquiries regarding copyright please ? I'll scan it, andI know I'm going to regret saying that, but, if we get copyright permission, I'm up for it. Might take a while, but, a start is a start ....

Now with over 35 years of newsletters, produced at the rate of 1 per month with an average of 4 sides of A4 per issue that could be a task nearly as big as the Sheffield breweries project that someone is working on.

I don't actually own the copyright on all this material (except that the 1999 to 2008 newsletters were done by me) BUT the previous newsletter editor, Eric Stanley, had deposited a second copy of the archive with the Fairground Archive at Sheffield University which is supposed to be fot public viewing.

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During my time on the Mercury I met up with other community newspaper people and exchanged views and ideas. The result of this was I picked up a few sample papers.

I could scan copies and display them here or on another thread if that is a better option.

Here's a list of the titles:

Local Rag - Castle area.

Torch - Handsworth.

Woodpecker - Woodhouse.

t'Paper - Parson Cross & Longley.

Sharrow Today.

Our News - Sheffield 6 area.

Tinsley News

Darnall News - One of the oldest running ones in the 1980's.

Hyde Park News

Also a rare survival of Open Door AGM meeting from 1989. It was based in Frecheville.

A couple of Active Issues - A council newsletter for community groups.

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New thread for each I think; S6 and Darnall beig somewhat different places ...

During my time on the Mercury I met up with other community newspaper people and exchanged views and ideas. The result of this was I picked up a few sample papers.

I could scan copies and display them here or on another thread if that is a better option.

Here's a list of the titles:

Local Rag - Castle area.

Torch - Handsworth.

Woodpecker - Woodhouse.

t'Paper - Parson Cross & Longley.

Sharrow Today.

Our News - Sheffield 6 area.

Tinsley News

Darnall News - One of the oldest running ones in the 1980's.

Hyde Park News

Also a rare survival of Open Door AGM meeting from 1989. It was based in Frecheville.

A couple of Active Issues - A council newsletter for community groups.

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Can you make enquiries regarding copyright please ? I'll scan it, andI know I'm going to regret saying that, but, if we get copyright permission, I'm up for it. Might take a while, but, a start is a start ....

I don't have much contact with the steam club these days as I am no longer not even a member.

I could just scan and print anyway, - as I said a large proportion of them are my work anyway.

I am sure I have already posted extracts from some of them on the site as it is.

Anyway I thought Stuart was our local "man who can scan"

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Just showing willing Dave. We'll need something for Christmas posting; I'm hoping "not to be here" then.

I don't have much contact with the steam club these days as I am no longer not even a member.

I could just scan and print anyway, - as I said a large proportion of them are my work anyway.

I am sure I have already posted extracts from some of them on the site as it is.

Anyway I thought Stuart was our local "man who can scan"

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Can you make enquiries regarding copyright please ? I'll scan it, andI know I'm going to regret saying that, but, if we get copyright permission, I'm up for it. Might take a while, but, a start is a start ....

Had a look at some of the old archive copies of Sheffield Steam Clubs newsletter with a view to scanning and posting.

First problem is that every copy has a totle header which gives, amongst other things like the title, date, issue number etc, the name, home address and home phone number of key committee members of the society. Sometimes these personal contact details also appear in articles if the article is about having to get in touch with someone to organise something.

As these details are personal and as some of the committee members still have the same contact details I am not prepared to scan and print them without first going through a very thorough editing and censoring process to remove such details for the security of the information of those named in these documents with personal details, 2 of them being myself (newsletter editor) and my wife (secretary).

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I appreciate your concerns Dave; not something we have a problem with if the data is a century old. Even dropping a big white box on top of the details isn't going to be easy if they are part of the main text.

There is quite a lot of pages, I assume.

Had a look at some of the old archive copies of Sheffield Steam Clubs newsletter with a view to scanning and posting.

First problem is that every copy has a totle header which gives, amongst other things like the title, date, issue number etc, the name, home address and home phone number of key committee members of the society. Sometimes these personal contact details also appear in articles if the article is about having to get in touch with someone to organise something.

As these details are personal and as some of the committee members still have the same contact details I am not prepared to scan and print them without first going through a very thorough editing and censoring process to remove such details for the security of the information of those named in these documents with personal details, 2 of them being myself (newsletter editor) and my wife (secretary).

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I appreciate your concerns Dave; not something we have a problem with if the data is a century old. Even dropping a big white box on top of the details isn't going to be easy if they are part of the main text.

There is quite a lot of pages, I assume.

Yes,

An average of 4 sides of A4 per month from February 1973 to October 2008 inclusive.

I make that 308 months, which would be roughly 1232 pages.

Mind you, as I have written a big share of it, just like many of my posts on here a lot of it is rubbish, - well, lighthearted, humerous banter really, which perhaps would not be that appropriate to a local history site.

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Could we please see 4 pages from an early edition (with the bits blanked out).

1232 pages is quite some archive.

Yes,

An average of 4 sides of A4 per month from February 1973 to October 2008 inclusive.

I make that 308 months, which would be roughly 1232 pages.

Mind you, as I have written a big share of it, just like many of my posts on here a lot of it is rubbish, - well, lighthearted, humerous banter really, which perhaps would not be that appropriate to a local history site.

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Could we please see 4 pages from an early edition (with the bits blanked out).

1232 pages is quite some archive.

What a performance that has been.

The early ones are either done on a printing press, done on a Banda spirit duplicator (one is so faint now it may be difficult to even scan it) or done on a typewriter. They have a header logo but beyond that they are mainly text only with little or no illustration. They are also in assorted sizes, scraps of paper, some A4 but some are foolscap.

To save me a lot of messing around (or so I thought) all the newsletters from October 1999 onward are done by me and are already in digital form on my computer archive.

I did the Oct 1999 to June 2000 issues on a word processor and so contain text only.

In July 2000 I introduced photos and illustrations

However, from July 2000 to quite late on towards the end (possibly 2007) I used Lotus WordPro instead of MS Word to produce them.

How do you convert a .lwp file, which it appears only IBM Lotus software can open into a .pdf for upload onto here?

I have had to reload Lotus SmartSuite to open the file, resave it as a Word .doc file, which messed up all the formatting, edit and censor the personal details in word while also putting some of the formatting back, uploading the whole lot to a free to use online Word .doc to Adobe .pdf converter, downloading it back, again with the formatting not quite right, and finally opening the .pdf in Serif PagePlus, which can edit .pdf files, to make final formatting adjustments.

It's not perfect, but however, with all that lot done (site being down for maintainence helped a bit) here is the result of all that conversion for a preview.

It is the July 2000 issue, chosen because it was the first one to include photographs.

1680007pdf.pdf

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Recieved, Thank you. Either the SheffieldHistory@Gmail.com Fairie will deal with them; or I will (on Monday).

Issue 1 of "The Mercury" as supplied by History Dude

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Thanks for that Guys :)

I'll upload the first one I worked on sometime later.

On the other papers from different parts of the city. Has anyone got a preference of which to post first, like one where you live?

By the way that's Neil in the donkey jacket! He has achieved a great deal since then. And possible still works from the Manor area.

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New thread for each paper please, to allow discussion. No preference as to order.

Has anyone got a preference of which to post first, like one where you live?

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Thanks for that Guys :)

On the other papers from different parts of the city. Has anyone got a preference of which to post first, like one where you live?

Are we just talking local newspapers or are local monthly magazines included eg: The Sixer [ S6] The Active 8 [ Woodseats ]

The S35 ?

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Are we just talking local newspapers or are local monthly magazines included eg: The Sixer [ S6] The Active 8 [ Woodseats ]

The S35 ?

Well I haven't got them! The ones I've got were all run by voulnteers not aimed at making money.

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