This week at The Archive we’ve reached another milestone, as our collection now numbers 77 million pages, and we welcome yet another new newspaper to our holdings, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph. All in all this week we’ve added 272,757 brand new pages, as we use our new title the Peterborough Evening Telegraph to tell the story of the United Kingdom’s first ever victory in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Meanwhile, from Buchan to Buckingham, from Halifax to Hemel Hempstead, from Lincolnshire to Littlehampton, we’ve updated 17 of our existing newspaper titles from across the UK. So read on to discover more about our new title of the week, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, as well as Sandie Shaw’s victory for Britain in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest.

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We’re delighted to welcome the Peterborough Evening Telegraph to The Archive this week. This newspaper, which serves the cathedral city of Peterborough, was established as a localised version of the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph (itself starting life in 1897) in 1949. In 1960, the title took its own name of the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, and is now known as the Peterborough Telegraph, or, more fondly as simply The PT.

Looking back to 1949, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph cost three halfpence and filled eight pages with a lively mix of local, national and even international news. The paper also featured ‘Tea Time Topics,’ photographs of local events and personalities, descriptions of weddings, local sports results, classified advertisements, and notices of BMDs.

By the 1980s the Peterborough Evening Telegraph shifted its focus to become more of a local paper. Now costing 20p, the title filled 28 pages with its main focus being on local news, although the newspaper printed an array of puzzles and competitions, as well as horoscopes, weather reports and garden hints. One particular highlight was a column penned by Rosie – ‘the woman columnist men can’t ignore.’

A daily newspaper, in 2012 the Peterborough Evening Telegraph made the shift to become a weekly newspaper, the final daily edition appearing on 26 May 2012. It continues to be published to this day and is known as ‘the city’s newspaper,’ featuring special jobs, motoring and entertainment supplements.

That may be it from our new newspaper of the week, but there is still plenty for you to explore through our updates to our existing titles. Leading the charge with over 15,000 brand new pages added this week is Sussex’s Littlehampton Gazette, whilst the Halifax Evening Courier sees the addition of over 12,000 brand new pages, whilst 11,000 brand new pages join the ranks of the Scarborough Evening News.

Meanwhile, we have updated a duo of Scottish titles, namely the Banffshire Herald and the Buchan Observer and East Aberdeenshire Advertiser, and new pages also join Northern Ireland’s Ballymena Weekly Telegraph.

1967 – The UK Triumphs at the Eurovision Song Contest

With the 68th final of the Eurovision Song Contest taking place this weekend, we thought we’d use pages from our new title the Peterborough Evening Telegraph to look back at the UK’s first ever victory in the competition. The UK triumphed in the 12th edition of the contest, which was held in Vienna on 8 April 1967. The nation was represented by Sandie Shaw with her song Puppet on a String.

On 3 March 1967 the Peterborough Evening Telegraph previewed the ‘Song for Europe’ television show, in which viewers chose the song to be sung at that year’s Eurovision. It detailed how Sandie Shaw would be singing ‘the number you, the viewers, have voted to be Britain’s entry for the next Eurovision Song Contest.’

Fast forward to 7 April 1967, and the eve of the Eurovision Song Contest, where the Peterborough Evening Telegraph was again on hand to provide a preview. It reported how ‘a potential audience of over 150 million viewers, throughout Europe, is expected for the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Hofburg, Vienna,’ Sandie Shaw signing Puppet on a String.

The Peterborough Evening Telegraph continued by relating how 17 countries would be competing, whilst the Communist-controlled countries of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Russia would be ‘taking the show live or in a recording.’

Interestingly, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph does not provide a report of Sandie Shaw’s victory in the contest, but it does provide a chronicle of her subsequent success. Shaw romped to victory with 47 points, with Sean Dunphy for Ireland coming in second with 22 points.

An indicator of Sandie Shaw’s success can be seen in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph’s ‘Local Top Twenty,’ which placed her and her Eurovision-conquering song at the top of the charts, ahead of the likes of Something Stupid by Nancy and Frank Sinatra and Purple Haze by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Meanwhile, in September 1967 Jane Hamilton, writing for the ‘Teen Scene’ section of the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, surveyed Sandie Shaw’s ‘great success in the Eurovision Song Contest,’ and how it had led her to sing ‘all over the world.’ Jean Hamilton predicted another hit for Sandie Shaw with her song You’ve Not Changed, whilst she reported how Shaw had ‘also recently signed a contract with one of the leading fashion houses.’

Sandie Shaw retired from music in 2013, and is remembered as one of Britain’s most successful singers of the 1960s.

Find out more about the history of Eurovision, pop music, and much more besides, in the pages of our newspapers today.

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated seventeen of our existing titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a FREE sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.