IF it’s true that a good talk to a history society should both entertain and inform, Alan Quick, the editor of the Crediton Courier, gave a very good talk to the Crediton Area History and Museum Society (CAHMS) on Monday, February 10.

Alan had promised to share some anecdotes of local history as revealed through the annals of the Crediton Courier.

In doing so, he also told us a lot about how the process of getting stories, writing articles, and putting the paper together have changed over the last 50 years.

He brought along the manual typewriter he used when he started working there – over 40 years ago.

Now, some of the articles you read (but not this one…) in your local paper have been written by Artificial Intelligence. Every article has to fit a standard template: either 120, 300 or 500 words long (check this one, if you need proof).

Alan’s wealth of stories included some that were humorous and some that reflected more serious issues.

Occasionally, the reporter becomes part of the story.

After covering a Red Nose Day event at a local village primary school, Alan went back to his car to find it jacked up with one of its tyres missing.

A smiling group of children and a mechanic from the local garage told him it was being held for ransom until he made a donation to their Red Nose Day collection.

He paid up!

The serious, sometimes heated campaign for a Crediton By-Pass, which reached its peak in the late 1990s, gave rise to a fondly remembered April Fool’s item in the Courier. A supposedly serious article reported that one option under consideration was the construction of a fly-over running the length of the High Street – complete with an artist’s impression to illustrate it.

Old news makes good news.

Tony Gale