As the weekly Teesdale Mercury in County Durham celebrates its 150th anniversary, former editor Jim McTaggart, who edited the title throughout much of the 70s, 80s and 90s, recalls his time at the paper…

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My first glimpse of the Mercury’s editorial office was enough to make any heart wilt. It had bare floorboards and peeling walls, while three buckets sat under a large bay window to catch sloshes of water every time it rained.

Its only equipment was a rickety typewriter on a flimsy card table. Several hundred photographs that had been published over the years lay in a heap in a tea chest which was laughingly known as the picture file.

But this large room overlooking Market Place -­ bare, damp and dirty as it was -­ had an historic feel and inky smell about it which appealed to the newspaper worker in me.

At least it wasn’t overcrowded as the editorial staff totalled one -­ me. I was asked to take over as temporary editor but was also the news reporter, sports reporter, photographer and sub-editor, though paid for only two days a week.

The paper at this time in the 1970s had only four pages, a circulation of 3,000 and no spare cash in the kitty.

I had to leave after a time to concentrate on my full-time job. I was invited back again later but had to depart again. But once more I was coaxed back and did the same jobs on my own for a while, as well as being managing director and delivery man.

From my attic at home I brought rolls of linoleum left by a previous owner and used it to cover the office floor as well as the stairs and corridor.

From my previous office I brought three desks, two filing cabinets and some chairs, all bought second-hand years earlier from RAF Middleton St George. This furniture was still in use when I retired in June 2000.

One setback in the early days was that a wall in the printing works came near to collapse due to the constant pounding of an ancient machine, and money had to be scraped together to have it rebuilt. The machine broke down at times and the heavy metal pages had to be humped away so the paper could be printed in Penrith.

I greatly admired the printers, especially three wise senior men­ Lew Johnson, Tom Harwood and Harry Hinchcliffe – who taught me a lot, kept me right and gave the firm magnificent service in the hot metal area, each putting in more than 50 years before they retired. It was men like them who ensured the paper survived its dark days.

Lew gave me a vital lesson. One week he pointed out that the paper had carried no report about a fire engine that had gone up a few nights earlier. I hadn’t reported it as it was only a chimney fire. But he said hundreds of people must have heard the engine clanging and expected the Mercury to tell them what it was doing.

From then, no scrap of news was too small, and it paid off as the circulation began to rise slowly. I’d worked in seven newspaper offices from Edinburgh to London but still had a lot to learn. We had six pages occasionally but, amid gasps, I planned that number three weeks running around the time of the Bowes and Eggleston shows. I wrote to over 100 potential advertisers offering special rates for these bumper editions.

Lew and the shrewd advertising manager Elsie Alderson, shook their heads. But I knew better. So how many new adverts did my campaign bring in? Not one. And not one extra copy was sold.

While big papers just estimate their sales, we were small enough to make an exact count. One Tuesday morning an undertaker rang with the death notice of an elderly village resident. Minutes later came another death notice from the same village. The newsagent from that village rang to say; “Knock my order down by two this week”.

Before any photograph was published we had to post it to Sheffield, where a metal block was made and sent on a train to Darlington. It was slow and costly, and up-to-date pictures could not be used. But we found an old block-making machine for sale near Harrogate and drove there in a hired van to collect it. We started using lots of pictures, including line-ups from local schools, and they helped to raise sales. And we signed on a full-time reporter.

One event which helped us was a Northern Echo strike in 1977. Our circulation and advertising got a boost and many of those new readers stayed with us when the strike ended. We were now over the 4,000 mark.

By then we had a regular six pages. Soon it was eight and then on into double figures. Around this time I suffered my only physical attack. A little old lady marched up the stairs and jabbed her umbrella into my ribs, causing an ugly bruise. My crime? Missing her name from the results of a produce show. She had taken second and third prizes for raspberry jam.

Another complaint came after a Christmas edition included pages from a century earlier. A woman protested that she answered an advert for dress repairs and found the address given didn’t exist. I told her the advert was from 100 years ago but she replied; “Rubbish – it was in your paper last week”.

But there were compensations. Even on such a small paper there was a chance to meet notable folk. Among those I chatted to on the Mercury’s behalf were King Carlos, the Queen Mother, Prince Charles, Princess Margaret, John Major, Tony Blair, Denis Healey, Harry Secombe, Michael Jackson, Michael Aspel and a couple of murderers.

My friends from national newspapers sometimes called. When Martin Walker of the Guardian popped in for a coffee he twisted my arm until I agreed he could do a feature on me.

When this appeared, the BBC rang from London asking if I could do a ten minute piece for Newsnight. The crew arrived with presenter Luke Casey, who is now at Tyne Tees TV. His excellent report helped us sell more copies.

Then another television producer from Cambridge rang, asking if they could base a new TV series on us. That was fun, with actors and technical staff visiting the office to see everyone in action.

John Duttine played editor of the paper, which was named the Micklethorpe Messenger. The six-part show, the Outsider, was not a huge success, but it did gain the Mercury more attention and sales.

Over the years I was fortunate enough to bring in some excellent reporters ­including Andrew Wilkinson, Kevin Tuck, Nicola Carter, Rachel Dowson, Marie Marshall, Emma Davies, Keith Findlay, Sheila Dixon and Jane Oliver­ who did first-rate work at different times and played a part in the history of the Mercury before moving on. With their help the circulation reached 7,000, which in the 1970s seemed impossible.

In my time there was also excellent work in the offices by Joyce Watson, Eileen Gutteridge, Margaret Armstrong, Ann Brannen, Margaret Banner, Mark Jackson, Stephen Mangles and Madeleine Sutcliffe, who have all since moved on, as well as stalwarts Shirley Birkbeck and Janet Scaife, who were still there when I left.

A move from hot metal to new technology went smoothly, thanks to a splendid printing team, led by Denis Morton and including David Croom, Terry Farrer, Gordon Martin, Geoff White and David Marquiss.

The Mercury shop has also been an important part of the business. Staff there in my time included Joan Dresser, Nancy Pratt, Miranda Barratt, Alison Morton, Julie Wilkinson, Carol Hughes, Christine Barker, Samantha Overfield and Lilian Coatsworth. My memory is getting feeble, so apologies to anyone missed.

It was a pleasure to work with all these people, some of whom, it has to be admitted, put up with awful conditions and low pay at times.

I’m delighted that the Teesdale Mercury has reached its 150th anniversary. I’m glad to have played a small part in its history and wish it every success for many years to come.

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