Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

We have quite the story for you with a libel case concerning a stockbroker and his cook from the Bristol Zigzag, one of our five brand new titles this week, which was published in the 1880s. That’s not all, we’ve updated fifteen of our existing titles from across the United Kingdom, Ireland and beyond, as we’ve added 204,486 brand new titles in all to The Archive this week.

So read on to discover more about our new titles, including the Bristol Zigzag and its Victorian shades of slander, and also to learn which of our fifteen titles we have updated for you.

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The East Cornwall Times and Western Counties Advertiser

We begin our exploration of the week’s new titles in Cornwall now with the East Cornwall Times and Western Counties Advertiser. First published in the Cornish town of Launceston in 1859, it featured the news from the eastern parts of Cornwall, covering the likes of Gunnislake, Callington, Calstock, and Kelly Bray.

East Cornwall and Western Counties Advertiser | 24 December 1859

Appearing every Saturday priced at one penny, the East Cornwall Times and Western Counties Advertiser was Liberal in its politics. It printed a range of articles, which incorporated a range of local, national and international news, alongside special interest columns like ‘Gardening Operations’ and ‘Art, Literature, and Science.’

In 1877 this title was incorporated into the Cornish & Devon Post, which now forms an offshoot of the Tavistock Times.

The Illustrated Oldham Telegraph

We travel up to the North West now to introduce the Illustrated Oldham Telegraph, which like the East Cornwall Times, was founded in 1859. Indeed, the very first edition of the Illustrated Oldham Telegraph appeared on 5 March 1859, likewise at the price of just one penny.

Illustrated Oldham Telegraph | 2 July 1859

As was typical of the time, the new paper included an address to its readers, which ran as follows:

Believing that the welfare of all classes is intimately connected, and that the rights and liberties of one class cannot be violated without inflicting injury on the whole, our columns will ever be found advocating the true interests of the people.

Moreover, the piece went on to explain how ‘the leading events of the week – home, political, and foreign, will be fully noticed in our columns,’ with local news also receiving ‘careful attention.’

Illustrated Oldham Telegraph | 5 March 1859

Filling four pages then, and appearing every Saturday, the Illustrated Oldham Telegraph printed a range of news items alongside multiple illustrations. These illustrations covered current affairs, as well as fashion drawings.

The Iron Trade Circular (Rylands’) & Hardware Weekly Messenger

Perhaps one of our more unusually named titles on The Archive, the Iron Trade Circular (Rylands’) & Hardware Weekly Messenger was founded in Birmingham in 1864. Filling an extensive 28 pages, and appearing every Saturday, this title printed ‘the Authentic Price Lists of the Principal Iron masters in England, Scotland, and South Wales, the Price List of Iron Sheets, and Tin and Terne Plates, the Iron Wire Lists, the Standard Tube Lists, as well as those of particular makers, revised weekly by the best authority.’

Iron Trade Circular (Rylands’) and Hardware Weekly Messenger | 20 March 1886

Moreover, within the pages of the Iron Trade Circular you could find ‘the latest Quotations for French, German, and Belgian Iron and Swedish Steel,’ alongside the prices of coal across the United Kingdom and ‘reports of the iron and hardware industries at home and abroad.’ You can also find within the Iron Trade Circular’s pages articles on patents and inventions, as well as lists of subscribers to the title.

Indeed, by 1880 the Paper and Printing Trades Journal was naming the Iron Trade Circular as ‘one of the oldest trade journals in the kingdom.’ It related how the publication had ‘a universal circulation amongst the iron, steel, coal, and hardware industries,’ praising the title for its typography and presswork.

Incredibly useful for the study of the growth of the iron trade, the Iron Trade Circular (Ryland’s) & Hardware Weekly Messenger was absorbed into the Iron and Steel Trades Journal in 1915.

The Wandsworth & Battersea District Times

Our penultimate title of the week hails from South West London, and it is the Wandsworth & Battersea District Times. Founded in 1869, this Conservative newspaper appeared every Saturday at the cost of 1d.

Wandsworth & Battersea District Times | 22 October 1870

Circulating through Battersea, Wandsworth, Putney, Roehampton, Wimbledon and Tooting, it printed local news from the area, such as the latest from the Wandsworth Board of Guardians and the police. Meanwhile, the Wandsworth & Battersea District Times also published international news, alongside correspondence from its readers.

Published from the High Street, Wandsworth, this title was absorbed into the Wandsworth Borough News.

The Zigzag

‘Local satirical print’ the Zigzag, or ‘the Western Punch‘ was published in Bristol in the early 1880s. It relaunched in August 1881, as it tried to escape the mire of scandal the libel case against one of its correspondents had caused, the paper declared how it would ‘deal with serious subjects seriously, and with light ones lightly.’

Zigzag | 3 November 1881

With its ‘chief object’ simply to be read, Zigzag declared that it would be ‘a paper for women as well as men.’ Appearing every Thursday at the cost of one penny, Zigzag filled its sixteen pages with a lively mix of songs, correspondence, and cartoons, which were always imbued with a lively, satirical edge.

‘A paper of a certain character,’ as we shall see, Zigzag covered the latest in Bristolian sport and theatre, as well as, perhaps most importantly, the city’s gossip.

Our updated titles

Zigzag could perhaps be thought to be one of the many imitators of The World, the society and investigative paper, to which we have added over 79,000 brand new pages this week. Coming in second with over 30,000 brand new pages is one of our recently added titles, the Chatham, Rochester and Brompton Observer.

Also enjoying updates this week are a trio of Scottish titles (the Glenrothes Gazette, the Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette and the Motherwell Times), a duo of titles from the Republic of Ireland (the Statesman and Dublin Christian Record and the Dublin Evening Mail), and the finally, one title each from Wales (the Cambrian News) and the Isle of Man (the Isle of Man Examiner).

The Bristol Zigzag and slander on a stockbroker

Whilst we were researching the Bristol Zigzag, we came across several articles about the publication. One such piece was published in the Western Daily Press on 17 June 1881, which dubbed Zigzag as a ‘paper of a certain character.’

Western Daily Press | 17 June 1881

Indeed, perhaps this reputation was deserved as Zigzag came to find itself at the centre of a libel case. The Western Daily Press described how the complainant was one Thomas Gillford, a stockbroker, of Broad Street, Bristol. And what was the scurrilous rumour penned about this ‘gentleman of position,’ who was ‘well known in society?’ It ran, according to the Western Daily Press, as follows:

That a gentleman well known on the Stock Exchange has shown his frivolity by kissing his cook; that it was a pot of real jam, but very awkward when his wife caught him.

Illustrated London News | 25 April 1885

So who was called in to answer to this accusation of slander? Well, it wasn’t Zigzag’s editor Edward Smith. Instead, it was a correspondent to the paper, William Seymour Eades, who found himself in the position of defendant before the Bristol magistrates. It was said that Eades had on ‘previous occasions communicated certain matters to this paper of and concerning Long Ashton,’ a village on the outskirts of Bristol where Thomas Gillford resided.

Edinburgh Evening News | 17 June 1881

Before the magistrates, the prosecutor described the damaging impact of the gossip published by Zigzag, relating how:

…under such circumstances as these, an accusation of a man kissing his domestic servant was an accusation which would hold up a gentleman of this kind to ridicule, scorn, and contempt, not only among the persons with whom he associated in society, but among other persons among whom he dwells and with whom he was daily coming in contact.

Illustrated London News | 28 March 1891

To compound matters, Zigzag editor Edward Smith had apparently told Thomas Gillford to write off the ‘libellous and scurrilous’ paragraph as a joke, which Gillford was not inclined to do. Consequently, William Seymour Eades was committed to trial, and fined £100.

On 17 August 1881, the Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser reported on the result of Eades’ trial. William Seymour Eades initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. However, his defence lawyer Mr. Norris soon revealed that Eades had changed his plea, stating:

…he regretted having written those libels, and that the necessary consequence of their publication had been to give pain to Mr Gillford. He did not want to be humiliating, and he did not think he could express more fully, with due regard to the defendant, his sense of regret for what had happened.

Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser | 17 August 1881

Meanwhile, Thomas Gillford was quoted as saying how he had ‘no feeling or desire whatever to punish the defendant,’ although he did feel that the libel should be accounted for. Ultimately, Eades was bound over for £50, and the case ended there.

Discover more scandalous tales of libel and other fascinating stories in the pages of our Archive today.

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated fifteen of our existing titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a free sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.