Shuttle headlines - from 1871 (From Kidderminster Shuttle)
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Shuttle headlines - from 1871
8:45am Thursday 7th March 2013 in News
By William Tomaney
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Read all about it: Colin Lloyd, who bid for the newspaper at auction and Jean Talbot look through an 1871 edition of The Shuttle. Photo: Miriam Balfry. 101313M.
COPIES of The Shuttle from 1871, including its first anniversary issue, have been acquired by Kidderminster’s Museum of Carpet.
The Friends of the Carpet Museum Trust secured the year’s volume of the newspaper, starting on February 11, 1871, for the Green Streetbased archive collection at an auction at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge.
It adds to the museum’s 169 volumes of The Shuttle spanning from 1874 to 1981, which it was given by Dudley Record Office in 2006. Several years, however, including the first four from 1870, were missing.
Secretary Jean Talbot said: “We thought about whether we should go for the 1871 volume or not and decided we would.
“It will be available in the archive for reference. They are all on computer in [Kidderminster] library but seeing the actual copies is much more exciting and a lot clearer.”
One issue, from Saturday, February 11, 1871, reports The Shuttle’s first birthday, saying: “It is just one year since the Kidderminster Shuttle began to ply. We have finished one piece and this day commence another.
“The public know pretty well the character of the cloth we produce, both as to its texture and design and we are pleased to find that it has not altogether been disapproved of.”
Another edition, from Saturday, March 4, of the same year, reported “the guardians of the Kidderminster Union” were to meet to receive new contracts from suppliers of products such as flour, beef, milk and coffins.
Mrs Talbot added: “It has been a real pleasure over the years to use the newspaper collection and it is very popular with researchers and visitors to the archive.”
She added bosses at the Museum of Carpet were “pleased” with the number of visitors at the tourist attraction, which opened last October She said it has taken bookings for talks, meetings and school visits.
The museum also runs a programme of activities including behind-the-scenes tours of the archives.
The archive centre is still missing Shuttle volumes from 1876 to 1881, 1897, 1913, 1924, 1963 and 1965.
