 |
||||
Menu
|
Home Page | |||
 |
The Hartfield Chronicle - One of the first Parish
Magazines In January 1859 Erskine
Clarke published the
first Parish Magazine which included an insert that was to be
adopted by 200 Parishes throughout the country.
Just eight years later Edward
Polehampton who was then rector
of the Hartfield Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin first published
the "Hartfield Parish Magazine" adopting the Erskine Clarke
insert in
the centre. There is therefore no doubt our Magazine was among the
first 200 and was
first published in June 1867. The cover featured an engraving taken
from a photograph by a Philip Delamotte and is reproduced on the left.
We are grateful to the Hartfield History Group, who have preserved
these early editions which came to light when the old rectory was
cleared and sold.
Here are the first two paragraphs
from
that first magazine:-
|
|
||
|
“MY FRIENDS AND PARISHIONERS,
On presenting you with this, the first number of THE HARTFIELD PARISH MAGAZINE, and asking you to become Subscribers for the future, I cannot do better than give you some description of the Magazine itself, and of the objects for which it is started. The central sheets (24 pages) are edited by the REV. ERSKINE CLARKE, under the name of The Parish Magazine, and have had an extensive circulation through the whole of this country for some time. The first and last pages will be confined to such matters as are of special interest only in this Parish.” While the original cover price of
One Penny would seem cheap, it is the
exact
equivalent of our current price of 35 pence. However the rector writing
at the time did
not expect one penny would:-
"really cover the expense of
publication,
but I hope that
friends will help me to make up the deficit.”
I am pleased to say today's
"Chronicle" does cover its costs thanks to
the support
of our local advertisers. Just two months after the very first edition
the rector listed 130
subscribers, so
bearing in mind that not everyone would be able to read in the 1860s
the Hartfield's Parish magazine
was off to a good start.
|
||||
Documents labelled pdf or
with the symbol
are
saved in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). To read them
you will need a
copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader available
for downloading here
free of charge.
are
saved in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). To read them
you will need a
copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader available
for downloading here
free of charge.
©
Hartfield & Coleman's Hatch Chronicle
Page last modified 27 June 2010