Supplying newspapers to Holy Island off the remote north east coast of Northumberland is a tricky business at the mercy of the tides. Twice in every 24 hours the island is cut off from the mainland, and as the tide times change, there are three days every fortnight when supplies can’t get through until later in the day.
Twice in every 24 hours the island is cut off from the mainland
Getting daily newspapers to the Isles of Scilly, 28 miles of Lands End, is no easy task
Val Patterson has long experience of the difficulties. For the last 18 years, Val and her husband Malcolm have run the Holy Island Post Office.
‘Because of the way the tides work it’s really hard. If the tide means the papers are late, we sell less because people want their newspapers first thing, not later in the day,’ says Val.
‘But we’ll always do all we can to sell newspapers because they bring customers into the shop and it’s an important service for the local community. There are only 140 people living here all year round and we are here to serve the locals, as well as the visitors.
‘Newspapers and magazines are an essential part of life.’
Getting daily newspapers to the Isles of Scilly, 28 miles off Land’s End, is no easy task.
If conditions are right, they come across on the daily helicopter from Penzance and arrive by 7.45, but if it’s foggy or very windy the helicopter can’t fly and they get packed on the ferry, which doesn’t arrive until 12.30.
On Sundays there are generally no deliveries at all. Landing newspapers on Scilly is only half the job. Once they are unloaded at the heliports on the islands of St Mary’s or Tresco, they have to be transported to the shops.
On the main island of St Mary’s, they are loaded on to the bus and taken down to Clive Mumford’s shop in Hugh Town. Clive sorts the delivery and dispatches onward copies for the off-islands of St Agnes and St Martin’s – these are taken to the quay by van and then loaded on to boats.
Arriving on the off-islands they are once more unloaded and then carried by tractor or Land Rover to the sub post offices. ‘Our papers must be handled more than any others in the country before they are sold,’ says Clive Mumford. His family have owned and run Mumford’s Newsagent for 105 years.
On Tresco, which has a smaller delivery, it’s a relatively short hop by tractor and trailer from the heliport to Tresco Post Office and Stores. Manager Kate Moore is philosophical about delays. ‘Mostly it all works fine, but the helicopter is occasionally affected by the weather. There’s been times when we haven’t had deliveries for three days, and then they all come in a bunch and everyone has a lot to read!’
Scilly seldom has Sunday deliveries as neither the helicopter service nor the ferry run on Sundays. Kate says that many people still take a Sunday paper and read it a day late: ‘Because they are on holiday on an island I think they like doing things differently,’ she says.
‘There are so many links in the chain and if one link breaks, then the whole thing goes down,’ adds Clive. ‘But it’s good fun and this being Scilly everyone pulls together.’