We’ve been reading stories about the Olympic Games in the newspaper archive – and it’s fascinating! From Pierre de Coubertin’s pioneering work on starting the modern Olympics in 1896 and Eric Liddell winning gold in 1924 right through to the ‘Austerity Games’ in London in 1948, we’re found 1,000s of great stories. We especially like [...]

The biggest digitisation of newspapers to take place in the UK The British Newspaper Archive website has just reached another milestone, as page number 5,000,000 was added to the site at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. With a target of 40 million pages by 2020, this 10-year project is the biggest digitisation of newspapers to take place in the [...]

We watched ‘The Great British Story: A People’s History’ BBC TV programme last Friday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The organisers of the programme are doing roadshows in June, and we noticed they’re visiting Liverpool on Saturday 2 June. This event takes place at the Museum of Liverpool, runs from 10am to 5pm and admission is [...]

We do love the stories you tell us about the people and stories you’ve managed to find in the newspaper archive.  We’re especially fond of the mysteries that were only solved as a result of suddenly finding information in the British Newspaper Archive Sandy Gillians of Georgetown, Ontario, has been kind enough send us one [...]

The annual South Ayrshire History and Family History Fair takes place at the Walker Halls in Troon on Saturday 2 June 2012, from 9am to 4.30pm. Admission to the fair itself is free, with special deals available on ticket prices for the talks. – http://southayrshirehistory.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/hello-world/

On 25 May 1850, the first ‘modern’ hippopotamus arrived in London. We say ‘modern’, because it may be that hippopotami roamed free in the London area, back in the days of dinosaurs et al… ‘Obaysch’ was his name, and he caused quite a stir when he arrived in London, with numerous reports about the hippo’s [...]

The first episode of The Great British Story: A People’s History will be shown on BBC2 on Friday 25 May at 9pm. Presented by Michael Wood, the programme looks at UK history from the viewpoint of ordinary people. In addition to the programme itself, there will also be four roadshow events taking place in various locations [...]

The ‘Fife Heritage Day’ takes place at the Lomond Centre in Glenrothes on Saturday 26 May. A large number of local and family history groups will be attending this event, so it promises to be a grand day out for all types of history researchers. Organised by the Workers Educational Association, the event runs from [...]

Unfortunately, currently we only have the option to print whole pages. This can be a little frustrating as the original image is scaled down to print in your home printer (usually A4) so will make it quite tricky to read! I have a few tips for you. . . The best way to retrieve a [...]

New issues available! The Cheltenham Looker On is now available on The British Newspaper Archive up to 1920! This is your historical ‘Hello’! Read all about it: http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1920-01-01/1929-12-31?county=gloucestershire%2C+england&newspapertitle=cheltenham%2Blooker-on&frontpage=false