About Glossop
Talking Newspaper
About Us
Every Thursday a team of volunteers meet at The Bureau in Glossop. News items from the latest edition of The Glossop Chronicle and other information are recorded onto a CD, keeping you up to date with news and events around Glossopdale and The Peak District.
Using the Royal Mail’s free ‘Articles for the Blind Service’, recordings are delivered to Glossopdale Visually Impaired People. Return postage is also free of charge.
Our History
Glossop Talking Newspaper was started in 1989 by Simon Molloy, manager of the Volunteer Bureau, then in Chapel Street, using news from The Glossop Chronicle every Thursday and recorded using a cassette recorder. The copying was done by bureau staff using equipment financed by Round Table, working all Thursday afternoon and Friday morning!
Joan Astley and her daughter in law soon took over recording and organisation being joined in 1990 by two volunteering ex journalists. David Andrew took over the running of the Talking Newspaper and in the early 2000’s the decision was made to go digital, buying a laptop, microphones and an audio mixer. The team of volunteers had grown to around 16 overall to include readers, copiers and administration of returned envelopes.
The Bureau moved several times over the years, with the Talking Newspaper moving with it, eventually to its present home on Henry Street. In 2018 we became a Formally Constituted Group with elected officers which meant we could apply for grants to modernise our ageing equipment. We are now moving away from CD’s to recording onto memory sticks and making our sound files available online through a website and on Alexa.
The Talking Newspaper has always been free to blind and sight impaired listeners throughout Glossopdale, financed for over 30 years by donations, personal fundraising and more recently Local Government and DCC grants. We are hopeful that by embracing the latest technology we can be accessible to more listeners who are lonely or socially isolated and would enjoy to hear a weekly recording of news, personal comments and anecdotes. Just like ‘a friend dropping in’.