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In December, 1811, all London was convulsed with terror at the tidings of the horrible slaughter wreaked at 29 Ratcliff Highway and 81 New Gravel Lane, and soon, from the Prince Regent’s table at Carlton House to the tap-room of the lowest dram-shop in Wapping, the hideous subject engrossed all.Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 27 August 1887These murders, now generally referred to as the Ratcliff Highway Murders, represent one of the bloodiest chapters in British crime history, and might have been the crime 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…

This week at The Archive we are delighted to have added 54,622 brand new pages, with four brand new titles joining us over the past seven days alone.From Glamorgan to Gravesend, from Sussex to Staveley, read on to discover more about our brand new titles of the week, and also to find out more about the significant updates we have made to our existing titles from England and Wales. Plus, we use our new newspapers to understand more about early…

Following on from our look at life on board the prison hulks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in this special blog we are going to take a look at what life was like behind prison bars over a century ago.Dartmoor Prison | The Sphere | 10 December 1927Using our newspapers, we will try to understand what life was like for the men and women sentenced to prison time in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: how…

This week has been a buzzing one at The Archive, as we have an incredible nine brand new titles available to search, with specialist trade union publication the Bee-Hive joining us, as well as new titles from across England, Scotland and Wales. We’ve added 108,440 new pages over the last seven days, whilst we have also been busy updating 35 of our existing titles.So read on to discover more about our new titles from Teignmouth to Kilmarnock, and also to find…

This week at The Archive we are delighted to announce that we now have 42 million pages available to search, with our current total having hit 42,089,096 pages.In this last week alone we have added 112,706 brand new pages, with seven brand new titles joining us from England and from Wales. In all, we have added 161 years’ worth of headlines. Read on to discover the treats we have in store for you – from new titles from the West Country, to a day…

On 15 July 1910 the Sheffield Evening Telegraph recorded the anniversaries of the day. One particular entry was this:Prison hulks first seen on the Thames…1776But what were the prison hulks, and what was life like on board these ‘floating hells,’ as they came to be known?Prison hulk Warrior at Woolwich | Illustrated London News | 21 February 1846As part of our history of law and crime month here on The Archive, we will take a look at what life was like on…

‘If you want something to write, write about Rose Heilbron. She’s the greatest lawyer in history.’These were the words of Jack Comer as he left the Old Bailey in September 1955, having been defended by 39-year-old Rose Heilbron QC, and subsequently acquitted.Who was Rose Heilbron? Born in August 1914, she was the first woman to win a scholarship at Grey’s Inn, one of the first two women to be appointed to the King’s Bench, the first woman to lead a…

This week at The Archive we have added a total of 75,958 brand new pages to our collection, and we are delighted to announce the addition of two brand new titles, covering the headlines between 1805 and 1961.So read on to discover more about our two new titles of the week, from an early Sunday newspaper to a Reading newspaper with a variety of political alliances. We will also be looking at the FA Cup Final 120 years ago, when Sheffield United took…

In the years 1893 and 1894 pioneering African American investigative journalist and early civil rights leader Ida Bell Wells (1862-1931) visited Britain on a series of speaking tours.Ida Bell WellsIda B. Wells, born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, had made it her mission to raise awareness of the brutal ramifications of the lynch law in the Southern States of America. This special blog will explore how Wells was received in Britain, and how the press of the time reported on…