This is our 250th issue. Now, who saw that coming? I certainly didn’t—at least not nearly 20 years ago when my wife and I would lay out pages of this magazine on our living room floor, trying to decide what should go where. Recently, we have been producing a second version each month. It’s called Marshwood+ and is the online extended issue where we include items that we couldn’t fit into the print issue. Despite expanding the workload, it has been a fascinating experience and has allowed us to remember and reproduce articles from past issues. Last month we highlighted Chard resident Charlie Holbrow from our cover ten years ago. Charlie started working as a farm labourer at 13 and followed that by working as a miner at 15—his story left us wondering how on earth he had survived such an extreme life. Less than a year after our feature, the Daily Mail ran a story about how Charlie had died after waiting five hours to be seen at a local hospital. In this month’s Marshwood+ we will take a look back at the cover features of Beresford Pealing and Nonie Dwyer. We also look back on stories about the Dillington photographers inspired by the late Ron Frampton, and catch up on articles such as one from Persephone Arbour who talked about her enjoyment of humour. ‘Humour derives from the human condition’ she wrote. She pointed out that it is born from ‘our pomposity, our wiles, our unintentional stupidity’ and our behaviour. It was a good description and with continuing uncertainty in every corner of the world, we could do worse than to hold on to humour whenever we have the chance. Looking back on these past issues makes the change on this month’s front cover all the more interesting. We now bring our cover subjects to readers in both colour and black and white. It’s one of many changes over the years as we’ve grown. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the focus on being a resource for the wider local community. We’ve expanded from our original 24 pages. Today in any given issue we help promote hundreds of local clubs, events, charities and businesses; not to mention the dozens of people whose stories have fascinated us and enhanced our understanding of this part of the world. Looking back each month hasn’t left us dwelling in the past, it has helped us to look forward with renewed enthusiasm for our community and celebrate the cohesion that we know can exist.
