Malcolm's dilemma over his lifetime's work

Catalogued and filed are details of more or less anything you would want to know about anybody and anything in his native Newport, hundreds upon hundreds of rare or unique photos, and the various books and booklets and research documents he has written and had published.

The Malcolm Miles Collection is of incalculable value as a historical record of Newport and its people.

But what to do with it?

"That's the big question, isn't it?" says Malcolm, who turned 81 on January 7.

There is a poignant reason that the question arises. Malcolm has terminal stomach cancer, and doesn't mind us telling you. Family and friends already know.

And in the circumstances in which he now finds himself, he wants to secure the future of that lifetime's archive and ensure the fruits of all his decades of study and research remains available.

Even now, there is still unfinished work.

"We have a brand new book on the computer which I've never got round to completing about Newport in the Great War. It's practically finished, but I haven't had the energy to complete it. We did a lot of interviews and a lot of people helped us with interviews. I would like somebody with publishing skills to bring the book to completion.

"There are various collections upstairs, including vast collections of postcards which we have just finished cataloguing. There are over 700 Newport postcards with a cost value of well over £4,000.

"There are lots of booklets printed just for local use. There are transcriptions of school log books."

As for what Malcolm would like to happen, he says: "My ideal solution would be to put it in an archive which is accessible and which I can guarantee would last the next 20 years. The fallback is always the county archive, which is excellent and which I have used all my life.

"We never think of these things. To me this archive upstairs has been a tool that I have used constantly."

Malcolm has not just observed and recorded the local history of the Newport area. He has been part of the town's public life over many years. He served for 33 years on Newport Town Council, retiring as an Independent councillor on his 65th birthday. This included being Mayor for three years from 1986.

He was for 25 years a teacher at the John Hunt School at Trench, a governor of Newport CofE School, founder chairman in 1969 of Newport's first playgroup, treasurer of Newport carnival committee, a member of the town's cricket club and, naturally, a member of the town's history society - this is not a complete list.

He says he is still technically a councillor on Chetwynd Parish Council.

Among those he and wife Sue have come across in Newport over the years have been a young Jeremy Corbyn, in the days in which the future Labour leader was a pupil at Adams' Grammar School.

Sue said: "My mum had a shop in town and Jeremy used to pop in from school and natter politics as a schoolboy."

Malcolm's books on the town and its people and places continue to be sought after.

"They're still selling, but we have none to sell," he says. However, on the internet they can command bumper prices.

Among Malcolm's many projects and achievements have been transcribing the logbook for Newport Junior School from 1897 to 1972, and transcribing the diaries of Ethel Morris, nee Boughey, of Aqualate Hall, from 1876 to 1956.

Then there are his photos.

"We have a huge collection of photographs by Howle, who was based in the High Street. Most of them are cartes de visite."

Howle was a Victorian photographer with a career spanning 30 to 40 years, and his photos depict Newport area folk from perhaps as early as the 1860s, as well as local scenes.

Malcolm has them in compilation albums.

The photos are bought from various sources, and a lot them don't come cheap, but are worth it to a historian with such a passion for local history.

So, this is the Malcolm Miles Collection, a gem of an archive.

Sue said: "Although Malcolm might not be able to use it, we would like it to be used. The family will be custodians on Malcolm's advice."

The pictures with this article are used courtesy of the Malcolm Miles Collection.