Roade Parish Council

ROADE NEWS

Roade News is a quarterly magazine produced for and by the people of Roade, and distributed free to every property in the village. If you have anything you want to publicize, sell or comment on, please give it to any of the editorial team. If you have an e-mail facility, please send articles to editor@roadenews.co.uk and any adverts to adverts@roadenews.co.uk.

A Potted History of Roade News

The forerunner of Roade News was an Information Leaflet published by the Parish Council; this was more or less the same as the Contacts Directory of today. The editor for this Leaflet was Mrs Pam Bottomley and her telephone number was then 647.

The first Roade News was published in the Autumn/Winter of 1973/4; it ran to eight pages, four of which reproduced the Information Leaflet. The magazine's first Editor was Ms P Meadows and a Mrs Muffett and Mrs Perry were her dutiful assistants.

The lead article was the Council Topics, which mentioned the Cemetery and the ever-present problem of dog fouling. Following on from this was a piece about Sewage Disposal and that there had been a spillage near the railway line, it was discovered that the cause of this was a "Mace" carrier bag tangled around the pump.

38 trees had been planted in Hyde Road, Bailey Brooks Close and Stratford Road. All of the trees (except for one given by the Women's Institute) had been donated to the village for having won the large villages section of the Tidy Village competition.

Also mentioned were the Churchcroft Open Space, and the problems of litter and vandalism around the village, which we were warned was a fineable offence.

The work on the Community Centre (now called The Village Hall) was well under way, and Mr Cecil Bottomley (its Secretary and Founder Chairman) anticipated that completion would be by mid April 1975.

In the years 1974, 75 and 76, there were four editions of Roade News each year but from 1977 to 1989 there were only three editions per year published.

From 1990 to the present time, it has returned to four editions per year coinciding with the Seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

There have been one or two strange little quirks, for instance we had 2 editions of No.59 and no edition No.60 and for some reason we never had an edition No.73.

The quality has improved significantly over the years and now more and more photographs are being used thanks to advanced technology.

Roade News is well supported by local business people who take advertisements in it.

Apart from the printing Roade News is produced entirely by villagers. Material is collected from local organisations and villagers regularly make suggestions or send in articles. Items of interest from a wider field are also included.

Over the years all those involved have worked unstintingly to ensure that the information, news events and general content have improved beyond all recognition from those very early beginnings. So from a folded A4 information sheet in 1973/4, we arrived at a 68 page, or more, informative and entertaining quarterly magazine.

We are very proud of Roade News, which draws together the whole Community.

Editorial Team

Editor: Sue Hagon - (01604) 863662

Alan Atkinson - (01604) 862063

Chris Clayson - (01604) 862195

Nicky Hall - (01604) 862889

Karen Johnson - (01604) 862420

Lorna Martin - (01604) 864856

The latest edition of Roade News can be found by clicking on the link below.