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With spooky season now upon us, we thought we’d scour the pages of The Archive to find some of the most spine-chilling ghost stories ever published in our newspapers.So settle in and prepare to be scared by tales of ghostly armies, inexplicable apparitions and portents from the afterlife, all of which have been featured in the pages of the newspapers to be found on The Archive.Want to learn more? Register now and explore The Archive1. An Army of…

As part of our history of law and crime month on The Archive, we are delighted to featured a very special guest post by author and former probation officer Martin Baggoley, who has written extensively on the history of crime and punishment.In this guest post, Martin describes how he used The Archive to research the tragic topic of infanticide in Victorian Salford, a desperately sad chapter in Britain’s crime history. So read on to discover the methods that Martin…

We have had another busy week here at The Archive, where the presses don’t stop whirring! In all, we have added another 98,718 brand new pages, with six brand new titles joining us this week.You’ll find new titles covering both the north and south of England, the south of Wales, and specialist titles that focus on the temperance and trade unionism movements in the Victorian era. So read on to discover more about our very special new titles of the…

It’s been another busy week for us here at The Archive as we have added 148,050 brand new pages over the past seven days. We are also delighted to welcome five brand new titles, hailing from Blackpool to Bridgend, from Dorset to Kenilworth, and a very special paper which was aimed at cotton factory workers in Lancashire.So read on to find out more about the Cotton Factory Times, our four other new regional titles, as well as to learn more…

This week at The Archive we have been as busy as ever adding new pages and new titles to our collection. In all 106,730 brand new pages have joined us, as we welcome a bumper crop of ten brand new titles from across the British Isles and Ireland – including what might very well be Wales’s first ever newspaper, and the beginnings of a famous national newspaper.Read on to discover more about this week’s exciting new additions!Register now and explore…

When the Blitz began on 7 September 1940, ‘It was the people of London who took command…Men, women, and children went straight to the safest place they could think of – the Underground stations.’In this special blog, over 80 years after the beginning of the Blitz, we take a look at how London’s main transport system – the Underground –  became a popular place of shelter for those seeking protection from the German bombing campaign, using an assortment of articles and photographs all to be…

This week we have added 48,988 pages to The Archive, with new pages covering both England and Scotland. We’re delighted to have updated four of our Scottish titles, with additions spanning the years between 1879 to 1981. We’ve also updated the Newcastle Journal, the Manchester Evening News, the Lichfield Mercury, the Wells Journal, and finally the Reading Evening Post.One of our Scottish titles to be updated this week is the Aberdeen Evening Express, to which we have added the years 1939-1945 and 1980-1981.Eighty…

In honour of Remembrance Day, during the month of November, The British Newspaper Archive will be focusing our attention on military in the newspapers.  Coming up this month we will feature blogs about our special military titles, researching military history, women and war, and wartime rationing and fashion, as well as a guest blog about a remarkable Great War discovery from The Archive.  To begin our military month, we are delving into the newspaper headlines through the years for the…

With Halloween approaching, we wanted to see what we could find related to the topic of hauntings in The British Newspaper Archive.Of children and hauntingsOften the origins of a haunting myth are rooted in death and loss. Sometimes the myth grows and morphs to such a point where its origin is indeterminate. Other times, the sad truth of its origin is unexpectedly revealed, as with the ‘grim discovery’ at a ‘haunted house’ in 1921, reported in The Scotsman.This…

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, like other British newspapers, reported that Britain joined the First World War on 4 August 1914.The Courier makes for especially fascinating reading because it reported the news in a very different way.Manchester Courier: ‘Keep your country out of a wicked and stupid war’Many newspapers included an advert encouraging unmarried men between 18 and 30 years old to join the Army on 5 August 1914.This example is taken from another title printed in Manchester, the Manchester…