As part of Black History Month this October, we have taken a look at the extraordinary life of Learie Constantine (1901-1971), a cricketer from Trinidad who would go on to become the United Kingdom’s first ever Black peer.The first player to take a Test match wicket for the West Indies, and described as one of the best all-round cricketers the world has ever seen, Learie Constantine’s career extended beyond sport, as he fought tirelessly against racial discrimination, as he became…

From South Shields to Saint Lucia, from Carmarthen to Canada, we’ve added 155,351 brand new pages to The Archive this week, spanning over 180 years of headlines. Furthermore, we’ve updated eighteen of our existing titles, with updates covering our regional titles from England, Scotland and Wales, as well as some of our international titles from Canada and the Caribbean.So read on to discover more about our updated titles of the week, as well as to learn about the bombing of a…

In March 1954 news broke that former Second World War fighter pilot and racing driver Roberta Cowell (1918-2011) had become the first known British transgender woman to undergo gender affirmation surgery, an important part of British LGBTQ+ history.Roberta Cowell, or Betty as she was known to her friends, soon became the ‘most talked of woman in England,’ making headlines across national and regional newspapers. And the way that Roberta used print media to tell her own story is a story in…

This week at The Archive we have added 53,195 brand new pages, as we continue to augment our regional newspaper holdings from across England and Wales. Over the past seven days, we have added new pages to nineteen of our existing titles, from Bedfordshire to Birkenhead, from Harrow to Hertford, from Retford to Runcorn.So read on to discover which of our titles we have added to this week, as well as to find out about the Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF)…

This week we are delighted to have added 430,247 brand new pages to The Archive, with a trio of brand new newspaper titles joining us over the past seven days. Meanwhile, we have updated 80 of our existing titles, with updates to publications from across England, Scotland and Wales, from Abergele to Winsford.So read on to discover more about our three brand new titles of the week, as well as to discover which of our 80 titles have been updated. Meanwhile, you…

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.…

This week we have added another 256,709 brand new pages to our collection, with an amazing ten brand new publications joining us from across England and Scotland. Meanwhile, we have updated 64 of our existing titles over the past seven days, with additions to some of our international titles, to our Welsh language titles, and to our national and regional titles.So read on to discover more about all of our new titles of the week, which hail from Erdington to Stanmore,…

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…

The 1930s were a decade of aviation records. Airmen and airwomen from across the globe pushed their aircrafts to the limit, travelling thousands of miles in pursuit of world firsts and fastest travelling times. And these men and women became the superstars of their day, bona fide celebrities alongside the stars of stage and screen.Chief amongst the royalty of the air was Amy Johnson, Britain’s answer to Amelia Earhart. In this special blog, as part of aviation April on…

Russia is building up a formidable air fleet and doubling her military railways. America is laying down new capital ships. Britain is strengthening her Navy and her Air Force. A few days ago Belgium announced her intention to spend more money on her Army…One never quite knows what Germany is doing. Her budget reveals her intention to re-arm to a modest extent…No doubt she is drilling her young men and inuring them to war on land and in the air……