This week at The Archive we are thrilled to welcome a duo of brand new titles, which are North East England’s Middlesbrough Standard and Northern Ireland’s Dromore Leader. Alongside these brand new titles, we’ve added an amazing 309,730 brand new pages in total to our collection this week. Meanwhile, from Aberdeen to Alfreton, from Brighouse to Broughty Ferry, from Newtownabbey to Northamptonshire, we’ve updated 40 of our existing titles from across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland for you this week.
So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles this week, as well as to learn all about the opening of the Tees Transporter Bridge, the longest existing transporter in the world, in Middlesbrough on 17 October 1911.
Register now and explore the Archive
Let’s start in Middlesbrough then with the first of our duo of new titles, the Middlesbrough Standard. This ‘strictly non-political’ newspaper was first published on 10 October 1908, as part of the Cleveland Standard series of newspapers. Costing only one halfpenny, it appeared every Saturday and circulated throughout Middlesbrough, a port town in North Yorkshire, as well as the surrounding Cleveland area.
The debut editorial of the Middlesbrough Standard on 10 October 1908 laid out the new newspaper’s intentions, which were centred around the welfare of the local populace:
In the first place it will be our constant endeavour, while chronicling the unceasing life and activities of our neighbourhood, to pay the greatest possible attention to those affairs calculated to increase the general well-being of the inhabitants of this populous portion of Yorkshire. To this end we most cordially invite contributions to our columns which will ever be placed at the disposal of subscribers for the amelioration and general improvement of our town and district…
Furthermore, the new Yorkshire paper aimed ‘to publish full and descriptive reports of the proceedings of all the various public bodies in the district.’ Meanwhile, the Middlesbrough Standard would not shy away from pulling any punches; the editorial promising how the paper reserved ‘to ourselves the right to criticise and comment thereon as we think will best serve the public interest.’
So what type of content did the pages of the Middlesbrough Standard feature? Well, the publication was a lively mix of opinion, local news, and helpful hints and tips. For example, in its expansive ‘Hints for the Home’ column, advice was given on how ‘to drink milk,’ as well as on how to ‘train children.’ The paper, meanwhile, featured local news from Middlesbrough, alongside more gossipy sections entitled ‘Town Opinion’ and ‘Middlesbrough Whispers.’
The Middlesbrough Standard also opened its columns to ‘American Humour,’ whilst publishing serialised fiction, and a section devoted to ‘Sports and Pastimes.’
We move now to the Dromore Leader, which is the second of our two new titles of the week. The Dromore Leader traces its history back to 1915, when it was founded in the small market town of Dromore, County Down. Covering the news from Dromore and the surrounding towns and villages of Moira, Saintfield, Dromara, Hillsborough, Lisburn, Ballynahinch, Ballinderry, Banbridge, and Donaghcloney, the Dromore Leader became known simply as the Leader from 1929 onwards.
Appearing every Friday, the County Down title published church news, alongside updates from clubs and organisations like the Dromore Bantam Club and the Dromore Amateurs Boys Club. The Dromore Leader, meanwhile, heavily concentrated on rugby in the area, as well as providing helpful hints and tips in columns like ‘This Month in the Kitchen.’
In 1981 the Dromore Leader shifted its publication day to a Thursday. This change was made on 26 February 1981 with the paper proclaiming:
The Leader will be in your local newsagents first thing on Thursday morning in the future, and we are sure you will welcome this earlier availability of your favourite family weekly. As from this week we have increased the price to 8p to help cover the added expense of extra pages, etc. At this it is of course excellent value for money.
Change was again in the air on 23 April 1986, when the Dromore Leader moved to a Wednesday publication day, even earlier in the week. The paper has now joined forces with fellow local title the Banbridge Leader, to become the Banbridge and Dromore Leader.
That’s it from our duo of new titles this week, however we do have plenty more for you to explore with additions to 40 of our existing titles this week. It’s a Scottish title that leads the charge this week with over 20,000 brand new pages added to its ranks, and it is Dingwall’s North Star and Farmers’ Chronicle. Meanwhile, over 16,000 brand new pages respectively join Aberdonian pair the Aberdeen Press and Journal and the Aberdeen Evening Express, whilst we have added new pages to three further Scottish publications, the Buchan Observer and East Aberdeenshire Advertiser, the Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser and the Caithness Courier.
Our English highlights this week include the new years we have added to popular London left-wing daily the London Daily Chronicle, whilst we have added years spanning 1858 to 1918 to Dorset title the Bridport News. Finally, we have updated four of our titles from Northern Ireland, namely the Banbridge Chronicle, the Newtownabbey Times and East Antrim Times, the Northern Whig and the Ulster Star.
17 October 1911 – The Opening of the Tees Transporter Bridge
On 17 October 1911 the Tees Transporter Bridge, also known as the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge or simply the Transporter, was opened by Queen Victoria’s grandson Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. Connecting Port Clarence on the Stockton side of the River Tees with Middlehaven on the Middlesbrough side, the Tees Transporter Bridge was built to carry a car or gondola across the River Tees in ninety seconds.
Our new paper this week, the Middlesbrough Standard, reveals the buzz around the transporter bridge throughout the year of 1911. Not everyone was positive, however, about the feat of engineering, fearing the costs around the ambitious project.
On 25 March 1911 the Middlesbrough Standard reported how ‘good progress has been made with the Transporter Bridge.’ There were hopes, at this stage, that the bridge would be completed in August, as ‘Everything was well forward.’ However, revealing the sense of intrigue and rumour about the bridge, the newspaper further detailed how:
At the meeting of the Middlesbrough Ferry Committee on Tuesday the Borough Engineer said there was no truth in the statement that the foundation had given way.
In spite of these rumours around the construction of the bridge, there was definitely excitement around its completion in Middlesbrough as the summer progressed. On 17 June 1911, the gossip column of the Middlesbrough Standard detailed how:
That the general opinion in Middlesbrough is that the Coronation festivities will be almost flat, but the town’s red letter day will be when the Transporter Bridge is opened when Royalty visits the town.
The visiting royalty in question was set to be Prince Arthur of Connaught, whose visit to the town was to overshadow the coronation of his cousin King George V on 22 June 1911. Meanwhile, on 24 June 1911, the Middlesbrough Standard reported on another meeting of the Middlesbrough Ferry Committee, where it was stated how ‘during the past month further good progress had been made with the construction of the Transporter Bridge.’
At the meeting, it was revealed how ‘the construction of the car at Glasgow was proceeding satisfactorily,’ with ‘the total value of the work done in connection with the Transporter [being] now £70,270, and of that sum £61,488 had been paid’ – that’s over £7 million in today’s money.
On 21 October 1911, a few days after the opening of the Tees Transporter Bridge, the Middlesbrough Standard was on hand to report on the doings of the day. First and foremost, it related how ‘that amongst the guests invited to welcome His Royal Highness Prince Arthur of Connaught was the Editor of the Cleveland Standard,’ the Middlesbrough Standard’s sister paper.
The Middlesbrough Standard was then full of praise for Middlesbrough Mayor Sir Hugh Bell, and the ‘wonderful influence’ which he ‘exercised over the press…for they were present galore.’ However, the opening was not an uneventful one, as the paper related:
That when Prince Arthur pressed the electric button to start the Transporter, an old man who was bending over the side of the carriage fell over, and just escaped a ducking in the river.
One can only image the scenes if the poor old man had fallen in! But amongst the pride and jubilations of the opening, with the ‘South Bank tradespeople closing their business premises’ to mark the occasion, there was some scepticism about the profitability of the new bridge:
That there are several Transporters erected in England and not one is paying. The prospects of Middlesbrough ratepayers are not rosy, so the white elephant may arrive yet.
However, the Tees Transporter Bridge was to remain open to 2019, with the hope that it may reopen at some point in the future.
Discover more about the Tees Transporter Bridge, engineering history, and much more besides, in the pages of our Archive today.
New Titles
| Title | Years Added |
| Dromore Leader | 1978-1984, 1986-1988, 1990-1992 |
| Middlesbrough Standard | 1908-1940, 1948 |
Updated Titles
This week we have updated 40 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.
