November 28, 2005


Town award prompts trebles all round

The last few days should have been a time of 'trebles all-round' for back-scratching publicity initiatives pleasing the tourism-dependent, editors and publishers.

When Country Life magazine last week revealed that Hexham in Northumberland had won its 'England’s favourite market town competition”, everyone had a good news story about everyone else.

The result even attracted mentions for Country Life in the English nationals and made a great splash for the weekly Hexham Courant.

Quite what the townsfolk made of the judges, television presenters Noel Edmonds and Ben Fogle, actor Penelope Keith, Conservative MP John Gummer and the last Archbishop of York, Lord Hope of Thornes didn’t get quite so much attention.

But Courant editor Colin Tapping was happy and on-message.

'Hexham has been the recipient of a number of recent awards and to be included in this competition is brilliant,' he said.

'It is a forward-thinking town, and recent modernisation has only served to enhance its appeal.

'Each accolade that we received is further proof of Hexham’s successful growth in recent years. It thoroughly deserves to be named England’s favourite market town.'

It took the area’s morning paper, the Newcastle Journal, to maintain some perspective.

Local organisations helped create the 'perfect' combination of history, charm, friendliness and community spirit, The Journal said, but “if you can’t tap into the community as a whole, you are not going to succeed.”

Noting that it was a Country Life survey a few years ago which put the Northumberland coastal town of Alnwick on the map, and that Hexham too deserved its day in the sun, 'the challenge now,' the Journal concluded, 'will be to make sure it retains the qualities which got it there.”

The 'Tyne' section of the BBC News Online website reported the success too – but using copy written at the end of the country.

'Towns in Hampshire and Dorset have lost out,' the site said, before finally revealing that 'Hexham eventually took the title' at the end of the third paragraph.