This week at The Archive we’re delighted to welcome a duo of brand new titles to our collection, as we look back to the launch of Worcestershire sauce by another duo, John Lea and William Perrins, on 28 August 1837. Meanwhile, from Ballymena to Bognor Regis, from Eastbourne to Epworth, from Skegness to South Shields, we have updated 21 of our existing titles from across England and Northern Ireland. In all, we’ve added 279,027 brand new pages to The Archive over the last seven days.

So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles this week, as well as to learn more about the invention of Worcestershire sauce some 187 years ago.

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We start in Lincolnshire with the first of our duo of new titles this week, which is the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News. Published in the market town of Crowle, which lies in the north of the county, the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News was launched in 1871 as the Crowle Advertiser and Tradesman’s Weekly Circular. The newspaper went through several name changes before sticking with the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News from 1877 to 1986.

Victorian copies of this title came with the subtitle of the Goole and Marshland Weekly Times, Selby Express, and Howdenshire Gazette, filling four pages and costing only one penny. Meanwhile, the newspaper was neutral in its politics and appeared weekly every Friday.

So what filled the pages of the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News? This title was largely concerned with local news, featuring reports on the latest happenings from the likes of Swinfleet, Hook, Ousefleet, Snaith, Selby, Howden, Thorne, Eastrington, Barmby-on-the-Marsh, and Asselby. Indeed, the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News served ‘Crowle and vicinity,’ whilst also printing shipping news and notices of births, marriages and deaths.

In 1986 the paper merged with fellow Lincolnshire local the Epworth Bells to form the Epworth Bells & Crowle Advertiser.

Before we move on to look at the history of Worcestershire sauce we need to introduce our second new title of the week, which is the Wigan Evening Post. Now this title was founded in the 1950s as the sister paper of the Wigan Observer, itself established in 1853, with the initial title of the Wigan Evening Post and Chronicle.

Appearing every evening (barring Sundays), the publication shed the Chronicle part of its title. Published in Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester, the Wigan Evening Post circulates across the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.

In the August of 2021 the Wigan Evening Post switched to a weekly publication schedule, now appearing every Friday, and as such, its title changed again, becoming known as simply the Wigan Post.

That may be it from this week’s duo of new titles, but as ever there is still so much for you to explore among our updated titles. Our largest updates this week are the 32,000 brand new pages we have added to the Skegness Standard, the 27,000 brand new pages we have added to the Shields Daily Gazette, and the 19,000 brand new pages we have added to the Mid Sussex Times. Meanwhile, we have also updated one of our titles from Northern Ireland, namely the Ballymena Weekly Telegraph.

The Launch of Worcestershire Sauce – 28 August 1837

Browsing through pages from our new title the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News, we found several vintage advertisements for the Lea & Perrins brand of Worcestershire sauce. This one from 22 January 1875 boasts of the condiment as being ‘the only good sauce,’ whilst also warning consumers to ‘beware of counterfeits.’

A second advert for the Worcestershire sauce brand appeared in the Crowle Advertiser and Isle of Axholme News during the same year advised of a new innovation, that ‘in consequence of spurious imitations of Lea & Perrins’ Sauce, which are calculated to deceive the Public, Lea and Perrins have adopted A New Label, bearing their signature.’ This would be ‘placed on every bottle of Worcestershire Sauce after this date.’

Coincidentally, it turns out that chemists John Lea and William Perrins marketed their recipe for Worcestershire sauce some 187 years ago, on 28 August 1837. So what did we do? We turned to our Archive to find out more.

The Hull Daily Mail on 28 April 1987 marked the 150th anniversary of the Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce brand, observing how ‘few people know the history of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, which consists of entirely natural ingredients matured for up to three years.’ The article, which was entitled ‘Taste of success,’ detailed how:

It began in a little chemists shop in Worcester run by John Lea and William Perrins. In addition to the usual pills and potions they also sold herbs and spices and a variety of rare and imported foods.

So how did they come to create the iconic sauce? Well, it all started with the visit of Lord Sandys to the shop in 1835, ‘with a recipe for a sauce he’d discovered in India.’ Lea and Perrins duly made the sauce, ‘but [it] was so unpalatable it was consigned to the cellars.’ However, a couple of years later, in 1837, the pair realised that the sauce was now ‘delicious’ and they launched their iconic Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce brand.

But did you know it may nearly have been Gloucestershire sauce? Our newspapers show the pair trading in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, rather than Worcester in the early 1830s. Another Lea and Perrins collaboration, ‘tonic laxative Cheltenham salts,’ was advertised in London paper the Sun (London) – nothing to do with the current paper of that name – on 20 June 1832. Another advert for their ‘Effervescing Cheltenham Salts’ appeared in the Cheltenham Chronicle on 12 September 1833, which gave the pair’s address as 373 High Street, Cheltenham.

A further notice regarding John Lea and William Perrins appeared in Perry’s Bankrupt Gazette on 12 January 1833. Thankfully, Lea and Perrins had not gone bankrupt, but they had dissolved their partnership with James Perrins on 14 September 1833. The notice details how Lea and Perrins were chemists of Cheltenham.

By 1835 the pair were trading in Worcester, with numerous advertisements attesting to this move, like this one that appeared in the Worcester Journal on 29 January 1835. This particular advert was for ‘patent elastic stockings,’ which could be purchased from ‘Lea and Perrins, Worcester.’ And the rest, as they say, is history.

Find out more about Lea & Perrins, other culinary innovations, and much more besides, in the pages of our Archive today.

New Titles

Updated Titles

This week we have updated 21 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.