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Today is a momentous day. Some fifteen years after the launch of the British Newspaper Archive, we have achieved the milestone of 100 million newspaper pages available to search as part of our collection. 100 million pages of stories waiting for you to uncover, from the length and the breadth of the United Kingdom, Ireland and beyond, covering five centuries of news.To celebrate this remarkable achievement, we’ll take a look at how we reached our 100 million newspaper pages landmark, exploring the…

This week at The Archive we’re exploring the traditions surrounding Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Day, as we welcome a trio of brand new newspapers to our holdings. Furthermore, we’re delighted to be welcoming 151,872 brand new pages in all this week, whilst we have updated fourteen of our existing titles from across the United Kingdom and Ireland.So read on to discover more about our new and updated newspapers this week, and also to learn more about the history of Midsummer…

With the Summer Solstice fast approaching, as well as the midpoint of the year and Midsummer’s Day, we at The Archive were keen to delve into the traditions and superstitions surrounding this time of year.With a history of celebration in Britain and Ireland that predates Christianity and the Roman invasion, in this special blog we are going to take a look at the history and origins of Summer Solstice celebrations, as well as investigating the range of traditions that…

This week at The Archive we are delighted to welcome a brand new title from the sunny south coast, the Bournemouth Times and Directory, as we take a moment to remember the devastating Bournemouth Blitz. In all, over the last seven days, we’ve added 366,686 brand new pages to our collection, whilst we’ve updated 25 of our existing titles from across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.So, from Buckingham to Burnley, from Dingwall to Driffield, from Mid Sussex to Mid Ulster, read…

This October we’re exploring the historical superstitions and traditions from across the British Isles and Ireland. Here, we’ve compiled 30 of the most intriguing historical superstitions, sourced from our newspaper collection.From the more well-known superstitions, for example, not passing underneath a ladder, or throwing spilled salt over your shoulder, to those you may not have heard of, like giving a knife along with a penny, anyone?), without any further ado, here are 30 fascinating superstitions from history for you to peruse.…

This week at The Archive we are delighted to welcome a duo of brand new titles to our collection, the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser and the Newport Pagnell Citizen, as we explore the Northumberland tradition of the kern dinner, which is held to celebrate the harvest home. Meanwhile, we have added 146,333 brand new pages to our collection in total, whilst we have updated 21 of our existing titles.So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles…

Since August 2021, the Archive has been working in partnership with the British Library to build a collection of free to view newspaper pages. This collection enables enhanced access to the diverse newspaper holdings of the British Library, with the titles, which have carefully curated by the British Library, spanning four centuries of news and covering not just Britain and Ireland, but the Caribbean, India, and beyond.You can search our free to view pages by creating a free account with…

Today marks the release of over one million new free to view pages on the British Newspaper Archive. Thanks to our ongoing partnership with the British Library, we have now made over four million newspaper pages freely accessible since 2021.Our collection of over four million free to view newspaper pages represents a significant step in making historical resources available to more and more people, an effort to which the British Newspaper Archive and the British Library are firmly committed.As…

This week at The Archive we marking the leap day of 29 February by adding 247,740 brand new pages, as well as examining the tradition of the leap year proposal. We’ve also added a duo of new titles, whilst we’ve updated 69 of our existing titles from across the world, from the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Caribbean, New Zealand and Hong Kong.So read on to discover more about the tradition of the leap year proposal, our two new titles,…

Today we have released one million new free to view pages on The Archive, meaning that we now have a total of nearly 3.5 million free to view pages all now available as part of our collection.These pages have been brought to you thanks to our partnership with the British Library. Both the British Newspaper Archive and the British Library are committed to making historic resources available to more and more people, and these 3.4 million free to view pages represent…