This book is based on the Witney Gazette of the early 1900s, which contains a fascinating blend of material. Local news takes up only a page or two, though advertisements for local businesses are spread exuberantly throughout. Local opinion, or a section of it, is taken care of by the thrusting comments of 'Jottings' and the equally eloquent Burford editorialist. Syndicated items include jokes, handy hints and lengthy serial stories with titles such as 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab', and 'Five Red Marks'. National and international news takes up quite a lot of space: though it is hard to resist lingering over such headlines as 'Suicide in Lion's Cage' or 'Wreck of the Argonaut', such syndicated stories are only included in this book if mentioned by , Jottings' .

All the events and opinions we have featured come from the Gazette. Sometimes we have simply copied the item word for word, but it has often been necessary to shorten or paraphrase it to save space: journalists in the 1900s expressed themselves much more expansively than they do today.

This is not a scholarly study, but an idiosyncratic choice of material which tends to reflect our own interests. We record events that are very like - or very unlike - things that happen in Witney today; unusual or freakish events; workaday matters and traditional celebrations like Witney Feast. Opinions, too, are important. We have not reproduced a 'Jottings' column, but have often attached the writer's comment to a news item: you will soon be able to recognise him. Where stories of tragedy or crime appear, we have not mentioned names if they could cause distress to present-day families, though, of course, the names are in the original Witney Gazette. Political correctness was unheard-of in Edwardian times; we have not flinched from reproducing some words and opinions which are offensive to many people in the 21 st century, including ourselves.

The items are arranged strictly according to the months in which they appear, though we have been a bit more free with some of the advertisements. Our book contains few photographs: the handful found in the Gazette are of very poor quality, and we have included one or two from other sources. We have used place-name spellings as we found them in the Gazette; these are not always consistent (for instance Cogges/Coggs). We have kept pounds, shillings, pence, feet, inches, yards, gallons, hundredweights etc unchanged, but there is a page at the end of the book to help anyone wishing to know more about them.

Practically every item we have chosen invites research, but if we had pursued each one the book would never have been published. So if you want to dig more deeply, just go down to Witney Library, where you can view the old newspapers on microfilm at your leisure. We have thoroughly enjoyed doing just that, and we hope our readers will find interest and amusement in the result.