End of magazine marks 200 issues for David and 137 years for St Peter’s

A quiet but significant moment took place last week at St Peter’s Leckhampton, as the final edition of its church magazine, in its current form, was published. The reason was not declining readership or lack of stories, but the retirement of its long-serving editor, churchwarden David Webber, who has produced 200 consecutive issues over more than 16 years of volunteer service.

“I’ve got mixed feelings about stopping,” David said. “No-one has come forward to take it over, so the magazine, as such, will have died, 137 years after the first issue was printed.”

St Peter’s parish magazine began in 1888 – a fact recently rediscovered when a parish historian found the original letter in which the church rector first proposed creating a magazine.

David stepped into the editor’s role in 2009, shortly after retiring from a career in teaching at Leckhampton School.

“As soon as one month’s magazine is finished, it goes off to be printed. I gave myself a week before starting the next one,” he said.

Contributions often came in from same people each month, for example the parish’s Director of Music and the eco-group, but material rarely ran short. Historical articles, eco-news, notes on forthcoming music, extracts from the parish register, and diocesan news all found a regular place in its pages.

“People are and have always been very good at contributing to St Peter’s magazine. Even when an issue seemed a bit thin early in the month, it was always full by deadline day,” David said.

“I always included things like the death of the Queen and the Coronation, even though they weren’t strictly parochial. I thought they were important to have in the archives.”

Many subscribers were not churchgoers but valued the magazine as a link to the community around them. Several local businesses also advertised faithfully in the magazine for years.

“Every edition was also sent to the British Library, to ensure that the parish’s story would be preserved permanently. I think it’s important to keep the magazine’s history intact. Each year’s issues have been bound, first by a monk at Prinknash Abbey, then by a local craftsman, but the pandemic brought that arrangement to an end. So I taught myself bookbinding.

“Copies of all 200 magazines sit together on my shelf at home. They take up about eighteen inches,” David said.

The magazine has been a source of unexpected and personal connections. In 2018, David wrote an article about Harold Cyril Lacey, a teacher at Leckhampton School who was killed in action in 1918. He said,

‘Every Remembrance Sunday when the names are read out I give a special thought to H C Lacey.

After some research David realised that he had taught in the same classroom and lived in the same house as this man.

“It was one of those ‘hair-raising moments'”.

Following this, David received a message from 98-year-old Cyril Richardson, who explained that he had been named after Lacey because of a pact made during the First World War:

“Harold (Harry) Cyril Lacey also has a special meaning for me. He and my father Arthur Richardson, a Grenadier Guardsman, were first cousins and made a pact that if either of them should ever be killed and the survivor had a son he would name him after the other. Consequently I sign myself….

…. Cyril George Richardson”

David said: “I’m going to miss both the creative process and the privilege of hearing news first. It’s satisfying when you’ve got the magazine complete. You look through it, it looks smart, and you see you’ve produced a good, finished product.

“I think parish magazines are an important part of church life. Parish magazines matter. They connect people, share ministry, and they preserve stories and history.”