About Maidenhead & District Talking Newspaper

The Maidenhead & District Talking Newspaper Association is a registered charity which provides the Maidenhead Advertiser on cassette tape to visually impaired people in Maidenhead and surrounding areas.

How It All Began

There had been a talking newspaper in Maidenhead as early as 1971, but the present Association was formed in April 1984 when Mrs. Tobitt of the Berkshire Blind Society wrote to the Maidenhead Lions Club to ask for help in setting up a talking newspaper on cassette. This had already been successful in Windsor and could reach a far wider audience than with open reel tape or the Clarke & Smith talking book format.

David Coldwell, who was the Lions' Welfare Officer at the time, placed an advertisement in the Maidenhead Advertiser and as a result a small nucleus of volunteers was formed and fund raising began. One of the volunteers was David Wilding, then Headmaster of Ridgeway School at Maidenhead Thickett. Through him Ridgeway became the headquarters of the Association.

Maidenhead Rotary Club donated £3,000 to purchase recording equipment and essential tapes and mailers. The Maidenhead & District Talking Newspaper was registered as a charity in July 1984. David Coldwell became the first Chairman. He then became Chief Engineer organising the technical side and David Wilding succeeded him as Chairman.

At first tapes continued to be delivered by hand because the listeners liked the personal contact but as the readership increased this became impossible and they were sent by post using the GPO's free Articles for the Blind service.

Photo: the first recording session. Open the link on the image for a larger version.

The Association Today

We produce a weekly news tape which is based entirely on material from Maidenhead's local newspaper, plus a monthly magazine tape which contains a wide variety of articles for which copyright permission has been obtained. Both programmes are sent out on 90-minute compact cassette tapes to around 130 listeners.

There are seven news teams comprising an editor and three additional readers, plus two similar magazine teams and reserve readers. These are complemented by six recording engineers and two teams which handle the duplication and distribution of cassettes. The Association is managed by a committee of ten which includes a blind Listeners' Representative. All are unpaid volunteers.

The Association is affiliated to the Talking News Federation (TNF) (formerly the Talking Newspaper Association of the United Kingdom (TNAUK)) and is generously supported by the Louis Baylis Charitable Trust (Maidenhead Advertiser) and other local charitable, corporate and individual sponsors.

If you wish to help in any way - by making a donation, by volunteering as a reader, or by helping in the technical or administrative areas - please contact us.

If you, or a friend or relative, are able to benefit from our service please contact us. The service is entirely free of charge to listeners, although in order to make use of the free postal service they must be registered blind or partially sighted. We will endeavour to get cassettes to other people unable to read the printed paper through disability. Listeners should be able to play standard compact cassette audio tapes, but the association can advise on or assist with equipment in cases of need.

The tapes are sent out in PVC wallets which are sealed with Velcro. After listening to the tape the listener replaces the cassette in the wallet and turns over the label which is located in a pocket on the front. The label is laminated for durability and has the top right-hand corner cut off when the return address is face up.

See What We Do - our rôles in the Association.

About Us

How It All Began

The Association Today