What is The Old Mail?
· It is a local magazine that serves the three villages of Cosgrove, Potterspury and Yardley Gobion in the South of Northamptonshire
· It contains news of coming and past activities as provided by both village organisations and individuals, and carries advertisements for a wide variety of local businesses
· Published for ten months of the year (excluding August and January), it is delivered free of charge to almost 1550 residences across the three villages
· It is also accessible online through our website, our Facebook page and our local village websites as a pdf document, where adverts and pictures can be seen in full colour.
· It is assembled by a small team of volunteers, is printed locally by NBR Printing Ltd, and is delivered to every residence in the area by a voluntary task force
· To cover printing costs, it is funded through advertising revenues and discretionary donations from organisations and individuals
Why “The Old Mail”?
The name, The Old Mail, came from a horse-drawn ‘wagonette’ or ‘brake’ which took workers from Potterspury and Yardley Gobion to the Wolverton railway works, and back home in the evening. It carried parcels and post as well and was known as The Mail.
Our Purpose
The Old Mail was established to create a sense of community, goodwill and belonging within and between the three villages. In this age of digital and social media the arrival of a monthly magazine on our doormat may seem 'old hat', but we know from many of the comments in a readership survey undertaken a few years ago that The Old Mail is much valued both for its inclusivity, as it reaches into every home in all three villages, and for its ability to inform and involve everyone with the events and news from the villages they live in. It was also clear from the survey, from which we had well over a hundred responses, that a very high proportion of our readership find the magazine very useful for keeping track of what's on, keeping up-to-date with village news and having a readily accessible source of contact details for local traders.
The choice of how to engage with the local community lies with the members of every household. We hope that our residents will continue to engage with The Old Mail for the foreseeable future!