We have reached a major new milestone in our project to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library’s vast collection of historic British & Irish newspapers.  Following the addition of a newspaper from the country’s smallest county, Rutland, the Archive now covers every corner of England as, for the first time, at least one title from each of the country’s 48 counties is now available to search and explore.  We have added 3,968 pages from the Rutland Echo and Leicestershire Advertiser.

Explore our latest addition, Rutland Echo and Leicestershire Advertiser

The British Newspaper Archive now contains over 18.7 million pages from 747 titles from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and spans nearly 300 (1709-2003) years of local, national and world history.

This exciting development marks the latest step in our drive to enhance the experience of researchers using the service. 2017 has seen a dramatic increase in the rate of digitisation with over 100,000 pages now being added on a weekly basis.

A rich variety of speciality publications have also been added since January, including a selection of significant sporting, police and military titles. A number of illustrated magazines containing full-colour images have also been made available this year, including the Bystander, Tatler, Britannia and Eve, The Stage, and the world’s first illustrated weekly news magazine, the Illustrated London News.

We are delighted to be working with the British Library on this project within what has been such a fantastic partnership since 2010. We are also expanding our scope and working with publishing firms across the UK and Ireland to bring even more newspaper content to The British Newspaper Archive – invaluable for those researching their family history; favourite sport; hobby or their hometown. The BNA truly is the ‘archive of everything’ in terms of the UK and Ireland’s social history. We’re excited and looking forward to working with the British Library and publishers on this vast project! – Amy Gregor, Global Newspaper Licensing and Development Manager

Explore all of our English titles