The Portsmouth Area Talking News was started in 1973 when the Government of the time decided that there was a need for visually impaired people to be able to access local news reported in the papers. PATN became a Charity enabling it to read to a wider audience beyond the confines of Portsmouth.

Recordings were made onto audio cassettes and sent out in this format for 30 years.  However cassettes were getting very difficult to obtain and with the progress of technology it was decided in 2008 that we would "go digital" and record onto Memory Sticks (sometimes called Flash Drives).   We were one of the first in the South of England to make such a change which involved our listeners learning the new technique.  

All we asked was that if they didn't have a computer then they would require a speaker to enable them to listen to their recordings and we researched a reasonably priced model which they could buy from us.  The rest of our service is entirely FREE as it always has been.

Publications

This TN has 7 publications listed.

• Hampshire

  Description: A recording made about the Hampshire area, pulling in articles from throughout the County and of course the magazine, Hampshire the County magazine. It will appeal to local people but also to anyone who loves the Hampshire countryside.

  Publication frequency: Monthly

• Navy News

  Description: This is recorded monthly and is of great interest to all those who have either served in the Royal Navy or have worked in the Dockyards around the country. It gives an insight into what is happening in the modern day Navy as well as articles about the old Navy and how it has changed.  The Navy News is read by two teams on alternate months.

  Publication frequency: Monthly

• Out & About

  Description:

  Articles taken from This England, covering the country as a whole

  Publication frequency: Monthly

• Petersfield

  Description: There are three teams recording in their own homes in Petersfield, on a weekly basis reviewing the Petersfield Post and Hampshire Observer.  These recordings are sent out fortnightly from our studio in Portsmouth.

  Publication frequency: Fortnightly

• The News, Portsmouth

  Description: This is recorded weekly by two teams in our studio in Portsmouth.  One team reads interesting articles from the daily paper on events that have taken place, a "What's On" in Portsmouth column and at various Theatres in our region plus a Restaurant Review by a well known Restaurateur and Nostalgia items by Ron Brown who used to write for The News.  There is also a list of Useful Telephone numbers.  The other team records on alternate weeks, also giving interesting articles edited daily from the Portsmouth News and they have a column of Gardening News from Brian Kidd, a former head gardener for Portsmouth City Council and News columnist, as well as a What's On section and Telephone numbers.

  Publication frequency: Weekly

• Woman

  Description: As the name suggests, this will appeal to ladies of varying ages and the articles are taken from two or three relevant publications. 

  Publication frequency: Monthly

• Yesterday

  Description: Yesterday is a recording made about events from the past.

  It relives interesting events that happened in the past along the South Coast and includes interviews with local people of the time from archived material. Much of the archived material is reproduced with the kind permission of the Wessex Archives.

  Publication frequency: Quarterly

Contact Details

Contact name:  Christopher Golding

Telephone:  07770 088388

Website:  http://www.patn.org.uk