MANY of my retired friends who were local newspaper journalists 50 years ago will never forget their surprise holiday in the glorious summer of 1959 – by courtesy of their colleagues in the printing department.

A countrywide pay dispute among printers erupted in June. National newspapers were mostly unaffected but work in all regional newspapers was brought to a halt when union workers walked out.

There were three newspapers in Sevenoaks at the time – the Kent Messenger (or Sevenoaks Telegraph), the Chronicle and the Sevenoaks News.

For the first time since the general strike of 1926, the public were deprived of local news.

The strike lasted for about six weeks and happened to coincide with wonderful summer weather.

Most journalists, on full pay, took full advantage by taking their wives or girlfriends on long trips to the seaside or to the local outdoor swimming pools such as Hilden Manor, Tonbridge and Woodsgate at Pembury.

Midweek afternoon cricket matches were quickly organised and pubs with gardens were especially popular.

There were also a series of local chapel (union) meetings in which the journalists were required to pay a levy in support of their striking brothers.

Donald Hooper, the proprietor of the Sevenoaks News (later to be taken over by the Chronicle), lost his printers to the strike but did not lose heart.

While the majority of journalists in the country were enjoying a quite unexpected break from normal duty, Hooper and his faithful editorial staff were producing, each week, a 12-page emergency edition printed on a duplicator by Mr Hamilton Hopkins at Estate House and sold in the usual way to regular readers.

The strike edition was so novel that the BBC featured it in its South East news bulletin.

The first edition appeared on June 25, 1959. It cost 6d a copy and the Sevenoaks department store Youngs even took its regular advertising slot on the front page.

The main story appeared to be the second reading of the Chevening Estate Bill when the Home Secretary Mr Rab Butler spoke of Lord Stanhope's generous gift to the nation.

For striking workers, times were hard as strike pay was minimal. But, eventually, the print and paper workers became the first manual workers to secure a 40-hour working week.