All The News That’s Fit (or not) To Print: pamphlet boxes 070-072

Pamphlet boxes in the 070-072 range include samples, and occasionally complete runs, of local newspapers and magazines. Whether published as circulating newspapers or self-printed and self-produced for specific areas or areas of interest, the items in these boxes cover an enormous period of time and a wide range of topics and editorial slants. Some of the items included are supplements from local and national newspapers that touch on the area within their wider theme. One such item is a gilt-print supplement celebrating the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1839, which has to be seen to be believed! Another is a small pamphlet published in 1878 on “Yorkshire Journalism in the Eighteenth Century”. But the majority of items are the aforementioned local publications, and a small selection of items that this Information Services Assistant found interesting follows.

“The Imp” was a magazine produced by the Junior Imperial League, which we know today as the Young Conservatives, and our single copy has a publication date of sometime in 1938. This issue’s purpose was to raise money for a children’s home in Norland and is primarily full of advertisements for local businesses, some extremely humorous, and poems, puzzles and short satirical articles about the area. For a magazine whose aim was to raise money for a children’s home, and given the publisher and associations, it is quite scandalously indiscreet in places and at times certainly very politically incorrect. The business advertisements have a much sillier, saucier flavour to them than versions which would have appeared in the Halifax Courier or Guardian; one advertisement, for the Palace Theatre, reads:

‘When your tea is disagreed with you, and you are still nursing the outcome of your criticism of the wife’s abilities, when the Income Tax summons arrives simultaneously with the Final Demand for the Rates, the “Bottle” is empty, and you are, in fact, feeling like nothing else on earth – that’s the time to go along and spend a couple of hours and a bright bob at the Palace Theatre’…’if that doesn’t cure you, then you probably need a long rest and we should recommend arsenic.’

Other adverts include bishop and actress jokes, and one particular joke for a carpet company was so rude that it was typed out for this blog post, reread, thought about, and promptly deleted. I’m sure it helped sell some copies and raise a bit of cash though.

Somewhat more “PC” is the contemporary Halifax Free Press, of which we have issues 1-27, spanning 1981 to 1983. Not to be confused with the newspaper which started in 1842 locally, with the same name, this was a left-wing, low-budget publication that highlighted austerity during this time period, journalistic independence (or lack thereof) from government, and cuts to council and cultural services. The issue pictured includes information on parents’ rights when applying for benefits, reproductive choice, and planned cuts to public transport services across West Yorkshire. The cover photo is of a banner which was held up on the route which Margaret Thatcher’s car took when she visited Halifax in 1983, outside the Courier’s offices, which listed the names of 60 local firms which had closed since she had become Prime Minister; the accompanying article accuses the Courier of bottling the chance to publish the photo themselves and asks whether it can truly say it is a source of independent journalism or not.

The Chiraagh, which promotes itself as “Calderdale’s Only Free Bilingual Newsletter”, is represented by three copies in our pamphlet box ranging from 1994 to 1996 but these are clearly not the only issues which were produced. Do any of our readers know anything about it? It is a mix of articles about the local area as well as events happening elsewhere in Britain which would have relevance to the British Asian community, and puzzles for children. The majority of content is in English but it also includes sections written in both Urdu, including poetry by a local author. It looks to have a been a very small-scale operation but perhaps some of our readers have family members who were involved in it who would like to share their memories or more background about it with us. Another similar locally-produced bilingual newsletter, Minar, is also in the box – but again, only a single copy. Please get in touch!

We then have two very different items aimed at young people – “The Satchel”, dated 1936, and “Calderdale Commotion”, dated 1991. The Satchel was a newspaper for the schoolchildren of Halifax, and this booklet is very nicely put together indeed. It commemorates a school trip, presumably a multi-school one, to Edinburgh and provides a small hand-drawn map of the city centre as well as a history of various parts of the city. There are instructions for the children near the front for how the trip will be conducted and what they should expect; instructions include “there will be no opportunity for the buying of presents, and TWO SHILLINGS will be more than enough for all needs”, “the Railway Company specially ask that children try to avoid spilling tea, etc., on the cushions”, and very importantly to “beware of the danger of hanging your heads out of carriage windows”!

Calderdale Commotion is worlds apart from The Satchel; billed as “for young people by young people”, it includes a verbatim account from a young man who steals cars and takes them for joyrides, talking freely about why he does it and his feelings (or lack thereof) about the consequences. More interestingly, it has graphic but informative information about sexual health and how to think safely about not just venereal disease but also HIV, and implores the government of the time to introduce straightforward sex-ed in schools so that misinformation about, for example, whether HIV/AIDS is only a threat to LGBTQ people can be combatted. It also includes local gig information alongside helplines for various emergency or non-emergency issues and employment rights for under-21s. This is another item that we only have one issue of and would love to know more about.

Finally, for the more old-school reader, never fear because newsprint isn’t dead in this box. Remember a reference earlier to the Halifax Free Press from 1842? We have an edition from 1844 in this box, very carefully preserved although in the condition you would expect for an inexpensive newsletter of the time. For the price of one penny, about 25p today, you could get an 8-page newspaper with news from around the world and the country, as well as Halifax-specific news items about local politics – in this case conscription for the war against France which Britain was currently engaged with – and a small number of advertisements, short stories and poems. Some articles are reprints from larger papers like Punch or the Examiner, and others have clearly been written by local journalists.

Once again, the wide variety of items in our boxes may come as a surprise to you, so feel free to come and spend a few hours rifling through one on any day that we’re currently open. Ask at the desk about what topics our boxes cover.