In the 1980s, the late Kathleen Ross inaugurated the compilation of a card index for The Tewkesbury Register newspaper.

The newspapers are on film in the Library and persons who could spare some time would view the papers entering Tewkesbury information under various set subject headings. These entries were kept in a “Shoe-Box” on index cards and those of us from the early days still fondly use this term to refer to the project.

Later on, using the database created by Bob Woodard, the Society took on the project and a team of members, under the supervision of David Willavoys, met regularly at the Town Hall, viewing the original newspapers. Their entries were typed into the database which could be viewed at the Library, thus reaching a wider audience but still not world- wide

The next stage was the Webmaster, Derek Benson, transferring the database on to “Google Docs” – this meant that members, world-wide, could view all the entries in the database including all the transcribed Tewkesbury Register newspaper items

Now in 2018, 30 years after the start of the “Shoe-Box” card index, technology has finally overtaken the project and the series of Tewkesbury Register from 1858 to 1968 can be viewed on the British Newspapers On-Line - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

This obviously concludes the Society’s project and sadly also ends our monthly friendly get-togethers.

The Society would like to thank all those members who have contributed over the years, whether transcribing, organising or typing and look forward to hearing about individual research stories  

Thank you all