4:48pm Wednesday 15th October 2008
A book charting 250 years of Quinton history will be launched just a week after all existing copies were destroyed.
Author Kate Creed spent the last decade researching her book A Birth, a Death and a Barrelage, which tells the story of the area around Quinton known as the Hawthorns.
The book’s release was put in jeopardy after 1,000 copies were ruined while being transferred from Adland print in Nottingham to a binders in Scotland.
Kate said: “I got a phone call to say all the pallets holding the pages were smashed, the pages were mixed up and in a bad state.
“It was worrying to hear especially just a week before the launch but I have been told they are working through the night to get new copies ready.
“I have been told we will have some copies ready for the launch.”
The book charts the last two centuries of the area which now incorporates the busy Hagley Road West, focusing on the changing landscape and the people who lived there.
Kate, who lived on Hagley Road West for 23 years before moving to Stourbridge, decided to write the book after embarking on her own personal research.
She added: “As I began to uncover more and more information I began to think I should share it with others.
“Research has been the hardest part - I spent days sat in libraries when I seemed to get nowhere but it was all worth it in the end.
“The area has changed so much in the last 250 years.”
Calvin Adland, from Adland print, said the cause of the accident which destroyed the copies was unknown.
He said: “The book was being transported by a courier company - we have worked all through the weekend to put things right.”
The book is set to be launched at Christchurch Quinton parish hall this Saturday October 18 between 11.30am and 1.30pm.
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