More than 5,000 copies of the Teesdale Mercury will be archived as part of the project. Picture courtesy Teesdale Mercury
Thousands of historic copies of one of the oldest regional newspapers in the country have been saved after the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded more than £35,000 to archive a century of print.
The Teesdale Mercury published 5,200 editions in the first 100 years since it was founded at Barnard Castle, where it is still produced today, in 1854.
Stored at the company headquarters and local heritage sites including the Bowes Museum, the estimated 45,000 pages will be updated and digitised in the project, staving off the threat of loss or irreparable damage posed by their current poor condition.
“This project is a fantastic opportunity to bring the history of the Teesdale Mercury back into the light,” said Ivan Crowther, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the North East region.
“It will provide countless resources for historians and the public alike, providing them with first hand accounts of important historical events. With the help of HLF the original copies of the paper can be preserved and the new digital archive will provide the community with a valuable sense of their heritage.”
Scientific discoveries, the turbulent industrial past of the area and the effects of two world wars are charted in the Mercury’s coverage, providing a wealth of intriguing material for the travelling exhibition, educational booklet and searchable online database the scheme will result in.
Roy Tranter, chairman of The Teesdale Mercury Access Project, called the plans “an amazing opportunity to explore and learn more about the history of Teesdale.”
“The Teesdale Mercury has played such an important role over the years in documenting Teesdale life and events that have happened – it would be an awful tragedy if those records were lost,” he reflected.
“By transferring all the records onto an electronic database we can ensure that they are easily accessible and will be preserved for the future.”
