Above and below: A few of The Village team’s favourite covers from the past 20 years.


people had a right to know what was happening and so The Village was back, but also with a much more solid business model. We were now printing 10,000 cop- ies and delivering them all free, rather than the original 3,000 which we sold in shops and other outlets across the area. Advertisers who wanted to reach our 20,000-plus readers would provide the revenue – and we even had someone selling the advertising space part-time. That was more than 16 years ago and I can honestly say we have hardly looked back as we office-hopped from Barnt Green to Alvechurch, even though I have consistently predicted that free publishing on the internet would be shutting us down any day. The Village now is as strong as ever, helped for the past ten years or more by sales and organisational supremo Louise Robinson and, for the past four, by full-time Editor and voice of relative youth (and Christmas) Sally Oldaker, who had been writing and sub-editing for the magazine as a freelance since 2002 . . . yet still took


the job. A round of applause for both of them, right here! None of it could be possible with- out our fantastic band of contributors, some regular and some occasional. Here I am going to get into trouble for missing people out, but there are some who have made the magazine what it is today, particularly Mary Green, Hannah Genders, Brian Watk- iss, Phil Thomas and cartoonist Bob Lawton.


On the picture side, I am indebted (in alphabetical order – because I sometimes feel they are quite com- petitive) to Dennis Brown, Paul Wilde and Keith Woolford. There is noth- ing they like better than to keep the pictures I take from making the front cover by offering their own fantastic photographs, some of which adorn this page. And, of course, we owe our exist-


ence to the advertisers who choose to use The Village to reach their custom- ers. I have lost count of the number of people who have said down the years that were only able to start their busi- ness because they could advertise it in The Village. They are all, of course, wonderful people and highly intelli- gent for choosing to advertise with us. Then there are the delivery “kids”,


many of whom have passed down rounds over the years through families, from sibling to sibling – and all those other people who have volunteered to deliver the magazine each month, just because they want to help. Creating our own delivery network back in 2009 was a very smart move as it gave us flexibility and also we


knew where almost every single copy was going. It also created what some say is my main job each month – driv- ing the van, dropping off boxes of magazines and chatting to everyone across our “manor”. Finally, I thank you, our readers, without whom we would be like a tree falling, unnoticed, in a forest. You bring us into existence each month and I never tire of hearing how you look forward to The Village dropping through your letterbox. As to the future? Well, I tried to disappear off to Spain a few years ago, which was when Sally became Editor . . . but, annoyingly for her, I’m sure, I’m still here and can’t resist sticking my oar in. I’m currently exercised by the


effrontery of the housebuilding com- panies and their lobbyists who tell us we should be grateful they want to make fortunes building on the Green Belt fields around our villages. This looks like a battle that could go on for a while longer, but I hope that when I do slide away into senility or off on that nomadic golf trip of a lifetime, there will be some people glad to see the back of me, otherwise I won’t have been doing a very good job, will I? As for The Village? Well, in spite


of so-called social media and the ugliness it can create, and other easy online outlets, print is enjoying a renaissance – and I’d like to think this magazine might still be dropping through letterboxes in another 20 years. It certainly shows no signs of going away just yet. But I wonder who will be writing this retrospective in 2038?


The Village October 2018 27


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68