History of SCAN
The SCAN magazine started in the 1970s as a replacement of the Parish magazine, but it holds information of all the local goings on for the villages that it covers.
The name SCAN comes from the villages that it covers, Sherington being one, the others are Chicheley, Astwood and North Crawley, hence the name SCAN, although the coverage of the magazine now includes Hardmead as well.
The SCAN started as a single typed-out sheet of A4 paper but has now grown to almost a 50-page booklet every month that is paid for by advertisements and donations. SCAN is free and delivered to your door every month.
Each edition follows the same format. The front cover is a local photo, or drawing from someone in the SCAN parish or an item of interest in the locality. This is then followed by a section of local advertisements.
There is a Preface by the Rector of the SCAN parish (a united benefice covering the same villages). Then each of the villages have a section of the magazine, usually in alphabetical order (ie Astwood, Chicheley, Hardmead, North Crawley followed by Sherington) with local clubs, groups and societies from that village contributing.
Within each village section there is a local correspondent’s column. Following the best journalistic traditions, they are identified by a nom de plume.
Sherington’s for many years was “A little bird…”. But the new millennium has brought a change and from the January 2001 edition Jackdaw began supplying the village with the local gossip. In more recent times there have been contributions from “Feathered Friends” and a “Little Wren”.
In the centre of the magazine there is always the church service times for all of the SCAN villages, plus any SCAN news.
After the last village section, there is another section of adverts and then on the back cover there is a directory of local contacts relating to the Church or the magazine.
SCAN Archive Register
The Society aim to keep one copy of all editions of the SCAN in the Archives.
You can download the latest Archive Register of SCAN copies which can be seen in the Society’s archives here. It was last updated 31 August 2023.
SCAN Magazine – Issue 1
An example of an article in SCAN written in 1999 by Little Bird is on the Bedford Road page in the Tours section of this site.
A selection of SCAN covers
