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With the addition of brand new title the Transport Worker, alongside three other brand new newspapers, this week at The Archive we are looking back at the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike. Meanwhile, we are excited to celebrate reaching a landmark 98 million pages, as we get ever closer to that 100 million pages milestone.That’s not all, in total we’ve added 203,148 brand new pages to our collection, with updates to eight of our existing titles. So read on to discover more about…

This week at The Archive we have a smorgasbord of historical Shropshire newspapers for you to enjoy, with the addition of eight brand new titles from the West Midlands county, alongside updates to eight of our existing Shropshire titles. We are delighted to be spoiling you with new pages this week, which number 288,672 in all, as we welcome a total of fifteen brand new titles, alongside updates to 43 of our existing titles.So read on to discover more about our…

This month marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day – the day that peace in Europe was finally declared. After nearly six years of conflict – how did the newspapers of the time report the momentous news? How did the people of Britain react?Gloucestershire Echo | 8 May 1945Using the front pages from the 8 May 1945, VE Day itself, we take a step back in time to discover just how the joyous news spread, and how it was reacted to.Register now and explore…

As the 2024 Paris Olympics begin, we at the British Newspaper Archive could not help but look back at the 1924 Paris Olympics, with the same city playing host to the summer Olympic Games exactly one hundred years ago. Paris had also hosted the Olympics in 1900, and so this year will be the third time that the city hosts the iconic sporting tournament.And the 1924 Paris Olympics would prove an iconic one for Britain, with gold medal wins by sprinters Harold…

The aristocratic Mitford sisters – Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah – hit the headlines throughout their lifetimes, with tales of scandal and intrigue filling the pages of the press from the 1920s and beyond.Born to David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney, alongside brother Thomas, the Mitford sisters often shocked society, whether it be through their political views, or their private lives.In this special blog, we shall unravel the remarkable stories of the six Mitford sisters,…

This week at The Archive we are delighted to welcome 675,584 brand new pages to our collection, as we introduce 6 brand new titles, including our first ever newspaper from the country of Malta. Meanwhile, we have updated an astounding 96 of our existing titles, from Acton to Ayrshire, from Billericay to Bridgend, from Gwent to Galloway, from Plymouth to Pontypridd, we have added new pages to titles from across England, Wales and Scotland.So read on to discover more about our new…

A walk along Piccadilly in the black-out is one of the many queer experiences of this war. The once brilliant centre of London’s night life is now as dark as any forest, and indeed, like a forest, the darkness is full of rustlings and whisperings, of half-seen shapes, and of a sinister feeling of eager, but invisible, life.So began a Daily Herald article on blackout crime in London during the Second World War. With blackouts imposed across the United…

Long before Agatha Christie envisioned murder on the Orient Express, or before she wondered what might have taken place on the 4.50 from Paddington, murder, mystery and mayhem were already well established on the railways of Britain and beyond.The first victim of murder on British railways was 70-year-old Thomas Briggs. In this special blog, we will take a look at his story, as well as nine others sourced from the pages of our newspaper Archive, which tell the strange, the…

In the decade after the Second World War had come to an end, and indeed beyond, many communities across the United Kingdom were faced with very vivid reminders of the conflict: bomb sites, the country’s ‘war scars.’In this blog, we will examine how people in Britain lived alongside bomb sits in the 1950s, using newspapers taken from The Archive. We will explore how communities adapted to live beside bomb sites, and how they transformed them into gardens and playgrounds.…

Women last week made history in the youngest Service, for the first delivery flights of aeroplanes from factory to storage depot, ‘somewhere in Great Britain,’ were carried out by the Women’s Transport Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary. There are nine members of this body.So reported The Sketch on 17 January 1940. Four months into the Second World War, and women were making history, and in particular, the nine women who belonged to the Air Transport Auxiliary. These women, along with…