With the Queen visiting the Chelsea Flower Show today, we thought we’d read some stories in the newspaper archive about previous royal visits to the show. This amusing story about Queen Mary’s ‘walking the plank’ visit in 1939 appealed to us. But we can’t help thinking that somebody in the royal party really ought to have evoked the spirit of Walter Raleigh, and whipped off his coat to make a clothed bridge for Queen Mary. In addition to all the …

News just in! We’ve just added the ‘Portsmouth Evening News’ for 1903 to the Archive. The addition of all the issues in 1903 means you can now view digital copies of this newspaper from 1 January 1878 to 31 December 1903. You can see what other titles have recently been added to the website by visiting the Newspaper Titles page.

Readers in Australia might be interested to know that Audrey Collins of National Archives UK is doing a lecture tour of the Eastern States of Australia in June/July. A leading expert in genealogy, Ms Collins will be attending events in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Listed below are the venues, dates and times. – Brisbane (Queensland Expo); Monday 25 to Wednesday 27 June. – Sydney, full-day seminar at Parramatta RSL Club, Corner of Macquarie and O’Connell Streets; Friday 29 June, …

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. In addition to the being able to get some free tips and advice from genealogy experts at the fair, there are four, very interesting talks taking place. Admission to the fair itself is free, with special deals available on ticket prices for the talks. – http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/news/return-fair-is-just-the-ticket-for-historic-event-in-troon.aspx

The 217-day siege at Mafeking finally ended on 17 May 1900, British forces led by Colonel Mahon fought their way through to the town. When news of the relief reached the UK, there was a massive outpouring of joy (some writers say there was an outbreak of mass hysteria) on the streets. Indeed, the word ‘maffick’ emerged at the time to describe the type of spontaneous celebrations that took place in ON 17 May 1900. Many of the newspapers at …

The Scanning Team at Colindale Library has also been busy with their spring dusters. But their cleaning duties are a little bit out of the ordinary compared to the rest of us. So to give us all an idea of what their spring cleaning involves, they’ve gone all Woody Allen and have posted a terrific, wee video of how best to clean a cronenberg [insert proper collective noun here] of gigantic scanning machines. – http://www.youtube.com/user/BNArchive

You continue to share some wonderful ancestral and historical stories with us via Twitter and Facebook. With the Olympics coming up, we’re especially interested in stories about the Games. Indeed, we’re lobbying to have ancestral storytelling accepted as an event for the 2016 Games. So if you have any interesting stories about your ancestors at the Olympics in 1908 and/or 1948, then we’d love to hear from you! – http://www.facebook.com/TheBritishNewspaperArchive – http://twitter.com/BNArchive

Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, London, on 7 May 1812. We didn’t actually know that much about Browning till recently, but we think that anyone who acted as the muse for a poem like ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ must have something going for them. Besides, we have a soft spot for eloping poets. There are dozens of interesting stories about Browning in the BNA, so we’ve been able to learn more about his life and poetry via the …

Catherine Clarke of New Zealand became hooked on genealogy when, following the death of her grandmother, she discovered a book of old newspaper clippings and some old photos. Her curiosity aroused, she’s since discovered that her ancestry includes such luminaries as Charles II and Nell Gwyn (which we’re fair impressed by!), not to mention an elopement, a balloon flight at the Crystal Palace, and many other great tales. Although she’d previously browsed the newspapers at Colindale, Catherine stumbled upon the …