Here at the British Newspaper Archive, we love to hear about the discoveries our users have made on our site. Last week, we had the pleasure to receive a letter from Councillor Dan Kelly, from County Tyrone, detailing his experiences using the Archive. The letter is reproduced in full below. I come from the small village of Glenmornan in rural County Tyrone. Recently, I was asked for help with some local research – not being an historian, I started in …
local history
The British Newspaper Archive holds over 70,000 pages from Liverpool newspapers (and counting), making it an unrivalled resource when it comes to tracing the history of the city and its surrounding areas. Register to View Liverpool Newspapers Our clever search tools allow you to focus your search by looking at papers from Liverpool only and offer the ability to narrow by date, recent additions and more. To focus in on Liverpool titles only, while …
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The British Newspaper Archive is an unrivalled resource when it comes to tracing local history. Where else would you find millions of forgotten stories from your street, town or city all documented and ready to be discovered? Take Birmingham for example. The Archive contains over 50,000 pages and and a varied range of titles from the UK’s ‘Second City’ and this guide will show you how to make the most of them. Register now and view Birmingham newspapers for FREE You can …
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Halloween in communities How Halloween is viewed varies from place to place and its traditions are just as diverse. A sense of how Halloween is treated in a given place can be glimpsed in its portrayal in cinema, music, and literature. Treat yourself to a poem written on the topic by John Mayn, printed in 1805 in The Scots Magazine. A notice in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News mentioned a Halloween tradition practised in ‘olden times’ in Scotland. Another Halloween tradition we …
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Hopefully, you were able to join us live for our local history webinar, presented by Michala Hulme. However, if you weren’t able to catch it live or want a refresher, watch it on our YouTube channel here! In reviewing the lively and engaging Q&A that took place during the webinar, we’ve pulled out a few questions that we wanted to highlight and expand upon. Search tip 1 Can The British Newspaper Archive distinguish between buildings, ships, towns, and surnames? Every time …
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London is steeped in rich history. Every borough, street and building in the UK’s capital city has a past and the British Newspaper Archive is one of the best resources available for unlocking the stories behind them. No matter what part of London you’re interested in researching, you’ll find newspapers covering every locality, with contemporary reports from some of the most pivotal eras in British history. Register now and view London newspapers for FREE One of the quickest ways to focus only on our …
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Read all about it, The British Newspaper Archive is 5 years old today! We are delighted to be celebrating our 5th anniversary at The British Newspaper Archive. We launched on 29 November 2011 with 4 million pages. Today, we have four times that amount, and just this week, we have passed the 700 mark on the number of titles we hold. Along with our British titles, we have also published over 125 newspaper titles from across Ireland. According to our …
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At this time of year you naturally start thinking about all things spooky and here at the British Newspaper Archive we’re no different. We’ve been combing the newspapers in our collection for stories that will send a shiver down your spine and we think we’ve found three great ones. The first takes us right back to 1723 where the Newcastle Courant was all a whisper about some strange sightings. From their somewhat tongue in cheek tone the Courant don’t seem …
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If you’re interested in Irish history the Irish titles on the British Newspaper Archive can give you an insight that you won’t find in any history book. With more than 136 titles available to browse going back to the mid-18th century and right up to an independent Ireland they are a rich resource for political and social historians alike as well as the more casual reader. You’ll find a picture of day to day life, from the highest scented halls …
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Ruth Small studied History at Newcastle University and recently got in touch to tell us all about her dissertation. She used The British Newspaper Archive in her research and was awarded a first-class mark, with some amazing comments about the originality of her work. ************** I wrote my History dissertation about the great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, which occurred on 6 October 1854. It was a fire which led to an explosion in a warehouse of a …