The Powys Talking Newspaper, or as it was originally called, the Montgomeryshire Talking Newspaper, was established in the autumn of 1971 with Mr Gareth Jenkins, headteacher of Meifod Primary School being the instigator and first Director of the Association. Therefore this year 2021 sees the Association celebrating its 50th Anniversary.

When Gareth passed away a few years later Mr Peter England took over the chairmanship and together with a group of loyal volunteers kept up the local news service by providing tapes to the blind and partially sighted people firstly of Montgomeryshire and then Powys.

Peter has only, during the last few years, stood down as chair of PTN for health reasons and the Association is very indebted to him for the enormous amount of work he put in to keep PTN going over the years, helped in later years by his son Paul.

The only time PTN was unable to function was during the first lockdown from March last year until December. In November 2020 a small group of committee members and volunteers decided to restart recording, taking all the necessary covid19 precautions required to ensure everyone’s safety during this pandemic.

Recording takes place every week on a Friday at the Studio at the Armoury, (now Ponthafren) in Welshpool. Each week the Powys County Times and the Brecon and Radnor Express is edited by one of our editors. The papers are then read by two readers and recorded by one of our technicians on to a master memory stick. This is then transferred to enough memory sticks to fill the pouches which are despatched by the Post Office to our listeners.

Our listeners, who live all over Powys and beyond, at the moment number seventy to eighty plus, listen to the news and then return the pouches via the Post Office back to the Studio ready for next week’s news.

The Powys Talking Newspaper is always looking for volunteers to help keep the organisation going. At the moment we are without a secretary since Jill Jones from Montgomery stood down at the last AGM in 2020. Jill did a sterling job and we are very grateful for all she has done.

We would also be pleased to welcome especially anyone interested in becoming an editor, technician (posh title but Sian says it is easy!) or reader. Please contact me –Helen Bennett, on 01686 668 446, or email: helenben700@gmail.com or any member of the recording team

Helen Bennett, Chair PTN