Papers give insight into past

John Dallison, from Derby’s Local Studies Library, explores the history of the local Press.

The British Spy or Derby Postman was the town’s first locally produced newspaper, appearing on the scene in 1720. It lasted about 10 years

A masthead from an early edition of the Derby Mercury

THERE you are tidying the garage or cupboard under the stairs when you unearth some tempting old copies of the Derby Evening Telegraph.

You begin by reading a brief item in one of them. The article provides a fascinating glimpse into the recent past, so you continue, deciding that it won’t hurt to read a few more snippets.

Minutes, even hours, later you return to your senses and guiltily wonder what you had been meaning to do.

Researchers in Derby Local Studies Library have regularly to resist such self-indulgence, for our microfilm collection of local newspapers spans more than a few months or years – it covers centuries!

As you sit in front of one of the library’s microfilm-reader machines, scrutinising images of black and white newsprint, it sometimes feels as if you are piloting a remarkable time machine.

One film supplies information about Brian Clough at the old Baseball Ground; another has photographs and reports of the 1945 victory celebrations. Yet another lists some of the Derby men killed or wounded in the First World War.

Go back farther and you can read about Florence Nightingale’s return to Derbyshire from the Crimean War, or you can learn about the impact of the early railways.

Go even farther back, to 1745, and be confronted by accounts of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s brief sojourn in the area.

The British Spy or Derby Postman was the town’s first locally produced newspaper, appearing on the scene in 1720 during the reign of King George I.

It was very different from modern-day newspapers, being printed in monochrome and containing no illustrations.

Also, it was smaller than our current tabloids and, although published in Derby, it carried little local news.

Interestingly, as early as 1727, there was a reaction to that dearth of local news items. R Hopton, of Bakewell, wryly criticised Samuel Hodgkinson, the Derby Postman’s printer and publisher.

Hopton’s open letter on the paper’s front page, dated June 15, began: “Sir, since you have hitherto taken the pains to define distant cities, towns and countries in your weekly paper, it would, in my humble opinion, prove more entertaining, and far more profitable to your readers, should you enter upon the ancient and modern state of Great Britain, especially that part thereof wherein you dwell, Derbyshire…”

In fact, many of the men (it was usually men) who read the Derby Postman required that a newspaper kept them acquainted with national and international events only, for they were part of our old ruling class, and they supplied each other with local information and gossip.

Those upper-class men would subscribe to newspapers and they would have access to them in leading clubs or coffee houses.

Many people would read one copy of a paper, for 18th century newspapers were expensive to purchase and to produce. Governments in those days, as a way of controlling the Press, heavily taxed newspapers, requiring that every page carried Stamp Duty.

Consequently, the average person could not afford regularly to buy quality publications like the Derby Postman and the Derby Mercury.

And, sadly, a large illiterate section of the population would have been incapable of reading them.

The Postman only survived about 10 years. But the Mercury, which was founded in 1732, continued until 1933.

The Mercury’s first publisher was Samuel Drewry. He tried to make his paper appeal to both Whig and Tory readers, and introduced few new features.

Among the local topics that Drewry covered were the following: visits to Derbyshire made by important people; meetings of the assizes; murders, suicides, robberies; and “curiosities”, such as freak weather or early archaeological finds.

However, he selected some of those topics more for their entertainment value than for their serious news content.

In the early 19th century, because of improved roads and better printing methods, national newspapers became widely available. At last, local publishers could concentrate more on local news.

They now employed, as casual correspondents, people who lived at key places in their newspaper’s distribution area.

Such writers were normally paid a small fee to write regular reports of events that took place in their district.

As the century advanced, working people increasingly had free access to newspapers in taverns, institutes and societies. Then, in 1855, Stamp Duty on newspapers was abolished.

This meant that far more of the public could afford to buy papers and many new titles appeared, catering for that enlarged and diverse market.

In those days, as now, the news industry continuously changed. The ever-expanding railway network made distribution easier and that encouraged competition.

The use of larger and more rapid printing presses affected both the cost and size of publications. Many newspapers adopted the broadsheet format and had more pages.

Occasionally, those pages would contain engraved illustrations, making them more interesting visually. Oddly, most papers carried advertisements, not news, on their front pages.

Newspaper proprietors, of course, had long relied on the income they obtained from advertisers. Those advertisements now provide us with a wealth of information about our Victorian counterparts.

Among the topics featured inside the Derby Mercury were those that Drewry had covered during the previous century – but the topics were now meant to be “improving and instructive” rather than entertaining.

Further, the paper carried announcements of births, marriages and deaths (but mainly those of the rich or well connected).

It was during this period that our local Press began employing regular journalists and, even, editors.

The Derby Mercury proudly referred to its journalists as “our own correspondents”, in true Fleet Street fashion.

That paper and its rivals (including the Derby and Chesterfield Reporter, the Derbyshire Advertiser and the Derbyshire Times) carried out a few tentative campaigns against local abuses of power or privilege, but they largely supported the established order.

All the publications that I have so far named were either weekly or bi-weekly newspapers.

Derby’s first daily was the Derby Daily Telegraph, which hit the streets in July 1879.

A remarkable woman, Eliza Pike, founded the paper, and it would eventually become our Derby Evening Telegraph. But that, to coin a phrase, is another news story!