This week at The Archive we’ve added 122,203 brand new pages to our collection, as we mark 41 years since one of the largest robberies in British history: the Brink’s-Mat robbery, in which £25 million worth of gold bullion was stolen from an industrial estate near Heathrow Airport. Meanwhile, we’ve updated two of our existing titles this week, with new pages joining the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser and the Daily Record.

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Founded in the Northumberland market town of Alnwick in 1885, the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser was a ‘thorough Liberal newspaper.’ Filled with ‘local and district news,’ the weekly paper appeared every Saturday at the cost of one penny, its eight pages covering the news from the likes of Amble, Berwick, Belford, Bamburgh, Broomhill, Callaly, Embleton, Fleatham, Fallodon, Felton, Great Ryle, Howick, Longframlington, Morpeth, Newbiggin, Rothbury, Radcliffe, Scrainwood, Swarland, Shilbottle, Titlington, Wooler, Whittingham, Widdrington Colliery, and Warenford.

In 1924 the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser was incorporated into the Alnwick Mercury, which had been founded some 70 years before in 1854. The resulting title is now known as the Northumberland Gazette, which continues to serve the towns and villages of Alnwick, Amble, Seahouses, Rothbury and Wooler. This week, we have added three brand new years to the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser, from1892 to 1894.

Meanwhile this week, we have added a brand new year, 1983, which will help us to tell the story of the Brink’s-Mat gold robbery, to Scottish national tabloid the Daily Record. First published in 1895 in Glasgow, the Daily Record was set up as the sister paper to the North British Daily Mail. Only six years later, in 1901, daily publication of the North British Daily Mail was halted, the title being incorporated into the Daily Record, with the Sunday edition, the Sunday Mail, remaining in print.

The Daily Record went on to become one of the most innovative newspapers of the 20th century. In the 1930s the title pioneered colour advertisements; on 7 October 1936 it became the first British daily newspaper to publish a full colour ad, which promoted Dewar’s White Label Whisky. Fast forward to 1971, when the Daily Record became the first newspaper in Europe to be printed in ‘full-colour.’

The Daily Record is published to this day, and retains a focus on news and sport in the United Kingdom with a Scottish lean.

The Brink’s-Mat Robbery – 26 November 1983

On Saturday 26 November 1983 one of the largest robberies in UK history took place, when thieves entered the Brink’s-Mat warehouse at the Heathrow International Trading Estate and stole gold bullion valued at £25 million. New pages added to the Daily Record this week shine a light on how the audacious crime was reported on at the time.

On 28 November 1983 the Daily Record reported how ‘a massive police hunt was on last night for the gang who stole £25 million worth of gold in Britain’s biggest robbery.’ The newspaper detailed how a £2 million reward ‘offered by insurers could tempt someone to grass.’

The article also provided some more detail on how the robbery was carried out:

The gang handcuffed six staff at the Brink’s Mat security warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport. One was hit on the head with a pistol. Another had petrol poured on him. Then the robbers threatened to set him alight.

Meanwhile, the Daily Record reported how 6,800 gold bars had been stollen, with Commander Frank Cater, the head of Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad, remaining tight-lipped ‘on a claim that the police knew who was behind the weekend raid, but lacked evidence.’

The paper also offered its own view on the Brink’s-Mat robbery, commenting how:

The Great Gold Bullion Robbery shows disturbing signs of passing into fable just as the Great Train Robbery did. The gang involved are obviously highly skilled professional thieves. The danger is that, as with the train robbers, a lot of people will look on them as some kind of latter-day Robin Hoods.

The ‘Record View‘ continued:

That they’ll enjoy some of the sneaking admiration bestowed on the likes of Ronnie Biggs and Buster Edwards or Roy (The Weasel) James. When in actual fact they’re just a bunch of vicious stop-at-nothing criminals. Let’s have no sentimental nonsense over thugs who pistol whip a guard and douse another with petrol. The size of the £25 million haul might be breathtaking – but they are no folk-heroes.

The next day, 29 November 1983, the Daily Record provided an update on the Brink’s-Mat heist. It reported how ‘the armed gang who stole three tons of gold in Britain’s biggest robbery may now be the target for other thieves.’ Allegedly, ‘police hunting the raiders were yesterday working on the theory that underworld sleuths are also on the trail of the loot.’

The police would work incredibly hard to track down the ‘loot,’ as well as the robbers themselves. In spite of nine people going on trial for conspiracy to handle stolen goods in 1988, and some facing prison sentences, much of the gold stolen in the Brink’s-Mat robbery has never been recovered.

Updated Titles

This week we have updated two 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.