A small group of local residents and historians in Deal are trying to get a large collection of original Mercury newspapers digitally scanned, so they can be added to local and national archives.
This large collection of newspapers include the Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury, the East Kent Mercury, with the addition of quite a few of the Deal Paper & Walmer News and East Kent Advertiser. The newspapers date from 1893 to 2006 and are all currently being stored safe at a location in Deal.
The group wants to get as many of the newspapers professionally scanned, so they can then all be viewed as digital files. There are only selected dates already available on the British Newspapers Archives and Find My Past websites, with many years actually missing from their list. Unfortunately, the Deal Museum and Deal Library are currently unable to give any space for storing the collection of newspapers, which has led to the need for a paid storage location being found instead. The importance of this collection can not be underestimated, as they contain much of town’s history for over 100 years.
If you would like to help with contributing to the cost of the storage then please give a donation here: https://gofund.me/f44df0622
Thank you!