CONGRATULATIONS to the Gazette on its 125th anniversary.

I first became aware of Dursley and the Vale when I got used to travelling out with my parents from my home in South Gloucestershire. In those days when the car was more socially acceptable, it was the done thing to go for a Sunday afternoon drive.

I can remember as yesterday making trips to watch the Stragglers at Stinchcombe, to marvel at the Vindi docked at Sharpness and to walk up Tyndale's monument at North Nibley and much more.

My relationship was cemented at school when I made regular visits to play Dursley Grammar School at rugby and cricket. No quarter was ever given or taken - but the tea and orange squash afterwards meant that rivalries never continued on after the game.

Not that everything as a teenager was quite so jolly. I know that when one young lady who I was sweet upon left to live in Dursley it might as well have been the other end of the world - distance in the '60s just seemed that much further, particularly if one's heart ached.

The Vale has always therefore seemed to be a special place for me. Whilst there are no special boundary features which made it easy to define the Vale we all know what it is not. It is not the Cotswolds, though understandably part of those famous hills impose on part of the area. It is not the Severn, which covers a much wider region. And it is certainly not part of either the Bristol or Gloucester hinterland.

We therefore have to look for other factors that bind the area together. It is for this reason that the Gazette in Dursley, and its sisters elsewhere are so important. They are the cement that binds the peoples of this diverse area together. Without its arrival on Friday we would never know what is really happening - and the sense of deprivation when it does not come is real.

Though no longer quite the same publishing force, one cannot think of Long Street and forget that this is the home of the Gazette empire. I have made many special visits to its home and hope that this will continue to be centred there for generations into the future.

Well done on the anniversary!