Harwich Standard editions going back to 1880 taken on by Harwich Society
ARCHIVED copies of the Harwich and Manningtree Standard dating back to 1880 have been taken on by a history group. The Harwich Society has taken over ownership of old papers prior to the 1970s.
The archives, all bound with a hardcover in years or multiple years, will add to the society’s current collection.
It comes as the Harwich and Manningtree Standard prepares to move from its Clacton office to office space shared with the Daily Gazette in Colchester.
Chief reporter, Lorraine King, said: “The Harwich Society is the best group possible to take over the responsibility of safeguarding and preserving these important records of the town’s history as we look to move offices.
“We are so pleased and grateful for them for taking these on and hope they can provide some interesting reading to others in the future.”
David Whittle, the Harwich Society’s archivist, welcomed the archived editions.
He said: “I have completely revamped our collection by building shelving to accommodate the whole collection and to improve access – they are a fabulous source of local history and are well used.
We still collect every paper on a weekly basis and are currently having the more recent copies bound into yearly volumes.
“We are only three missing, 1946, 1953 and 1954, if they ever come to light we would be interested.”