Legendary Huddersfield journalist and author DENIS KILCOMMONS is a natural storyteller who brings everyday subjects to life in his own inimitable style. Denis wrote a hugely popular column in the Huddersfield Examiner for 34 years until his retirement in 2023. Now he’s back from a break and writing for Huddersfield Hub.
The digital age has killed or neutered provincial newspapers.
A Free Press is more essential than ever in today’s world but much of the national print media is controlled by big money.
So this picture from the past might stir a few memories. It was taken in the back room of The Albert, the pub next door to The Examiner when we were located in Ramsden Street up to around 1990.
Landlord and landlady John and Margaret Moran were at the helm of what was the journalists’ pub. Staff from the Examiner, plus Alec Ramsden and Michael Brown, the two Yorkshire Post reporters stationed in town, and Alan Cooper and Stan Solomons, who ran the West Riding News Service freelance agency, all gathered at the bar lunchtimes and early evening.
The Albert was a hub of the town, also attracting councillors from Kirklees and detectives from Huddersfield CID.
The National Union of Journalists held their monthly branch meetings in the back room which is where the picture was taken. Alan and Stan are at the front (and pictured below).
Anybody recognise other faces? Industrial writer Harry Clegg and sports editor John Gledhill at the back and, on the right, Alec Ramsden, myself and a young Neil Atkinson, one of the finest reporters the Examiner ever had.
Back in 1978 the Albert became the strike headquarters for the National Union of Journalists. John opened the pub early for us (although the bar remained closed) and the back room was HQ. The NUJ provincial Press had called a strike just in time for Christmas.
To be fair, it had been waiting to happen. Newspapers could pay individuals higher rates of pay (merit money) but basic wages in the provinces were well below the national average. We were on strike from December 4 until January 15, manning picket lines.
The Examiner at that time was still a locally owned company and management were surprisingly sympathetic to our cause but bound by the Newspaper Society not to break ranks. If memory serves me right, for Christmas they put a tab behind the bar of the Albert for strikers to have a drink.
The NUJ strike was raised in Parliament. It was pointed out the provincial Press with its daily, evening and weekly newspapers, provided a vital service for the communities they served. Parliament refused to debate the issue.
The golden age of journalism has gone. I count myself lucky to have been part of it.
Meanwhile, the World Cup has dominated our screens for the last few weeks and the clear winner in the fans celebration section is Norway for their Viking row which has been brilliant.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching the Facebook postings of everyone from supermarket workers to kids, to schools, to a packed Times Square in New York to Norway’s Parliament all doing the row. There’s even a stirring music track available on YouTube called Vikingblod. I wouldn’t be surprised if Man City fans didn’t adopt it next season.
England, of course, have Wonderwall from Oasis, a great and very apt song and has to be the best anthem of any other nation.
