THE Dockenfield community gathered at the Church of the Good Shepherd earlier this month to celebrate the 250th edition of the Dockenfield Newsletter.

A staple of village life since 1980, the newsletter is edited, printed and hand-delivered to 250 households six times a year. It is produced entirely by volunteers with printing costs funded by Dockenfield Parish Council.

The newsletter began with modest aspirations to provide a bulletin of local events and topics across a single, double-sided sheet of paper following the demise of the village shop.

However, in recent years it has grown to an average 16 pages encompassing a broad mix of local, regional and general articles as well as items intended just to make readers smile.

Testament to its appeal, the newsletter’s readership is now almost as large outside Dockenfield as it is within the village - with online subscribers as far away as Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, The United Arab Emirates and Canada.

More than 75 people attended the party on Friday, February 5, held to celebrate the 250th edition and to thank all the many volunteers who have helped produce the newsletter over the years.

Among those in attendance were many of its 18 past and present editors - including the very first, Lyn Gill and latest editor Michael Foster - as well as all the distributors, major contributors, members of Dockenfield Parish Council and representatives of the clubs, pubs, shops and churches in both Dockenfield and Frensham.