Corrie: now that's a collection!

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Fans welcome Coronation Street bonanza
ALYCIA AMBROZIAK, The Gazette
Thursday, December 06
www.canada.com

Members of the Hudson Coronation Street Appreciation Society are looking forward to a trip to the past: the organization was recently bequeathed copies of virtually every episode of the popular British soap opera that has aired since 1984.

"We had an assorted collection of specialty episodes, but certainly nothing that compares to this," society president and founding member James Parry said last week. "This is certainly a treasure trove of nostalgia."

Coronation Street, the world's longest-running soap opera, was first broadcast in England in 1960. Some cast members have been with the show - which centres around the Rover's Return Pub and local residents - since they were children. The show airs on CBC weeknights with a two-hour rerun Sunday from 7:30 to 10 a.m. In Canada, the show is aired about nine months behind the British schedule.

The episodes, which are on VHS tapes but which Parry hopes to convert to DVD, came to the more than 150-member society in a roundabout way. Pat Cloutier of Williamstown, Ont., contacted Parry after her brother-in-law's father, who was living in Toronto, moved into a seniors' residence. Edward Kowal and his wife, Mary, who died a few years ago, had religiously recorded every Coronation Street episode but he had no room for the tapes at his new home. Cloutier's brother-in-law had read a story in The Gazette about the Coronation Street Appreciation Society and told Cloutier about the group.

Parry said the tapes will be housed at the Brigadoon B&B, on Main Rd. in Hudson. "We were very lucky in that two of our society members, Wayne Benner and Linda Clifford, own and run the inn and have offered to make room for the collection," Parry said, adding that the collection will be available to viewing to society members and guests at the B&B in what will be known as the Edward and Mary Kowal Coronation Street Library. It's only fitting that we honour the people who made this possible," Parry said, adding that among the Coronation tapes were also tapes of many boxing matches. If anyone likes boxing and would like the tapes, they should give me a call," Parry said.

The society, which has no membership fees, welcomes newcomers. The group meets for lunch at the Willows Inn on the first Sunday of each month. For more information about the Coronation Street Appreciation Society, call Parry at (450) 458-7154 or email him at creation@videotron.ca

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That's got to be one huge amount of vhs tapes! At a rough guess I'd say at least 500 of them... I might contact them and see if they need any help making them available online.