ALAN BERRY – AN ECLECTIC COLLECTION OF THE HISTORY OF EVERTON – HIS LIFE’S WORK
When Alan Berry, a former reporter on The Sheffield and Doncaster Star recognised that his health was beginning to fail, he expressed concerns that the large collection of local history work, built up over many years, would disappear. He sought out someone who would take on the task of keeping the work in the village and make it available for anyone to look at. He asked Sue Hughes.
There is a large and varied collection of press cuttings and stories of local families, houses, places and personalities. Alan also wrote two books: Land of Ancient Memory and All Poor Men which form part of the collection. Plays based on this collection have been written and performed in the village. Sue has managed to negotiate space in the Village Hall cupboards to store this collection and has set about cataloguing and indexing them. She acknowledges the invaluable help given by Val Kirby and Peter Borrowdale.
As the books are quite fragile, it has been agreed that they will only be available to read and research in the village hall on request; it is important that they sustain no further damage or loss.
Sue writes: This project has taken far longer than I had hoped, but I feel Alan would be happy that his wishes have eventually been carried out. I have felt his presence with me as I have worked on the books and am sure that he can rest content that his work has been truly worthwhile and will live on.
Click on the Index Grid below and discover the contents of the notebooks and albums.
Use the indexes to identify areas of interest and to view the relevant books and materials contact Sue Hughes on: suemhughes@outlook.com