UPDATE re The Forester/Mercury Newspaper records (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, December 14, 2011, 03:46 (4520 days ago) @ May

My sister works at "The Forester" office in Cinderford. She confirms that they don't really have a formal system for researching the old Mercury archives which they do proudly hold going back into the late 1800s. It seems that visitors do sometimes go thro their archives at their offices, apparently at no cost although advance notice is requested. She already is "very busy" with her usual high workload so understandably isn't keen to research their archives, even for me ! This increase in workload is because they have very recently separated from the Gloucestershire Citizen Group and they are now a totally independent newpaper. Their new website is http://www.theforester.co.uk/about.cfm

The Forester now recommends we use Cinderford Library as the paper's archives are all held there on microfiche, so is a far quicker & easier search, as far as she knows the Library is still open contrary to what you may have heard.

EDIT: Following recent 2011 reorganisation Cinderford Library is thankfully still open most days but only til 5pm except 7pm Fridays. It is open Saturday but only 10-1pm so I guess time for researchers may be limited then. I do not know whether prior booking is needed or preferred.
see

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/libraries/cinderford?contact=yes

The direct phone number for Cinderford Library is 01594 822581.

Hope this helps!

UPDATE May 2012:
I've just updated the above link, apologies for it yet again being out-of-date. It seems the Council Website is still undergoing many changes with many "broken" shortcuts and unhelpfull "help" screens. Furthermore I urge anyone wishing to contact the library to phone via the above number. I cannot understand why the Council website does not quote this number; it is listed in local directories & the library staff are happy & able to deal with phone enquiries. Sadly these efficient staff aren't reflected by the "Help"line number quoted on the website (they cannot answer obvious simple queries, plus they only open til 5pm), and the quoted email address is not answered either. Hopefully the letter I've just sent them will help them improve things a little. I know we are perhaps "lucky" to still have local library services but the official website really lets them down.