It all began with a discussion in the Oxford Mail newsroom.
The editor had been to an editors’ conference, where the message to him and fellow editors had been: “Start a nostalgia column - the readers will love it.”
The question was - who was going to write it. As the editor and I surveyed the newsroom, we couldn’t see any reporter who had been with the Mail for more than a few years.
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So the editor turned to me and said: “I think you’d better do it.”
Having worked for the Mail for more than 30 years, I suppose I was the prime candidate, but would I have time?
I was then news editor in charge of more than 20 reporters and responsible for filling the news pages not only of the Oxford Mail, but The Oxford Times, the Herald series, the Witney Gazette and Bicester Advertiser.
As my daughter Sarah and son Paul will tell you, I rarely say no to anything.
So the job of starting Memory Lane fell to me. My first task was to contact Malcolm Graham, Oxford historian and then head of the Centre of Oxfordshire Studies, who kindly supplied a list of possible subjects.
With three weeks’ articles in the bag, Memory Lane was launched on Wednesday, July 26 1995 with a story about the famous (or infamous) rubber road in Cornmarket Street, Oxford.
A rubber company had produced a revolutionary rubber block which, it claimed, would offer long life, stop vibration and reduce traffic noise.
With the promise of a new road surface at no cost, the city council readily agreed to allow blocks to be laid.
The blocks did prove to be long lasting - from 1937 to 1954 - but were lethal in wet weather, with vehicles skidding and shoppers having to scatter.
In nearly 2,000 issues, we have brought you stories and pictures about shops, schools, clubs, societies, pubs, bands, shows and much more.
We have also featured hundreds of personalities and recalled many issues and events from Oxfordshire’s past.
It has been a great pleasure to bring readers their weekly dose of nostalgia.
I have had the back-up of the wonderful Oxford Mail library, started by Alec Russell in 1954 and continued through the years by successive librarians, with its thousands of cuttings and pictures from which I have been able to draw.
Above all, readers deserve credit for supplying so many of their own memories and photographs.
From day one, they searched drawers, cupboards and attics for suitable material and have continued to do so ever since.
I must also thank the army of Oxford Mail journalists, latterly Marc Evans, Tim Hughes, Andrew Ffrench and Joanne Wood, who over the years have skilfully designed the Memory Lane pages with my raw text and pictures.
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