Preliminary study of history publishing in weekly local newspapers of the Victorian era. Quantitative analysis suggests that more history was published in local papers than in books, which promises to change our ideas about how the public consumed history writing Handout: https://www.academia.edu/17539107/The_local_paper_The_premier_history_publisher_of_the_Victorian_era

1. The local paper: The premier
history publisher of the
Victorian era?
Andrew Hobbs, University of Central Lancashire
ahobbs2@uclan.ac.uk
Twitter: @hobbb
https://uclan.academia.edu/AndrewHobbs [handout in Talks section]

2. In 1712, ‘13 and ‘14, the Lancashire recusant
and Jacobite Thomas Tylesley kept a diary,
which reveals life among the Catholic
Lancashire gentry in the run-up to the failed
uprising of 1715.
By the late 1860s the diary was in the hands of
Thomas Parkinson of Myerscough Cottage near
Preston.
Parkinson allowed a local newspaper editor,
Anthony Hewitson, and a young Roman
Catholic antiquary, Joseph Gillow Jnr, to
transcribe the diary.
Hewitson then published this historical source
document, verbatim, with footnotes, week by
week in his paper, the Preston Chronicle from
Oct 1871.
Two years later Gillow and Hewitson revised
their transcription and published this in book
form.

4. Preston Chronicle 9 Dec 1871
The wholesale transcription of a historical source, with
footnotes, in a local weekly paper

5. The publishing of the Tyldesley Diary is a good example of:
• The Victorian boom in history, inc publication of historical documents
• A NW ‘local history community’ (Kidd) of scholars, writers, amateurs
• Central role of local newspapers in publishing and popularising history
in 19C and into 20C
History writing in local newspapers:
• reached all levels of society
• Was used for a purpose: to strengthen and trade on local identities

6. 4 elements in Tyldesley Diary example:
1. Historical sources
2. Research, writing and publishing by members of a local history
community
3. Publishing in local newspapers
4. Publishing in books

7. 1. Historical sources
Gillow and Hewitson were doing similar work to history printing clubs which took off in
Victorian era, e.g. Chetham Soc (est 1843), Record Soc of L&C (est 1878), Lancs Parish
Register Soc (1898) – same all round country
• Central gov made records available – several local papers gave a summary of the Report
of the Keeper of Records, cataloguing new national history records – this was reported
even when there was no local connection to documents – 1850s
Growing demand, increasing popularity of history – why?
• Sir Walter Scott historical novels
• Speed of social, technological change? Belief in progress, optimism (Whig view of
history)? Nostalgia? Distancing from superstitious past of folklore?
• Besides historical documents, memory was an important source in other cases – the
Victorians liked contemporary history (perhaps because of pace of change?) – popularity
of memoirs, reminiscences

8. 2. Who were the local historians involved with
publishing history in the local press?
The gentleman amateur
Joseph Gillow, co-editor of Tyldesley Diary, was a major historian of the
Roman Catholic church. Had a private income, born Preston, family
could trace connections back to Conishead Priory, links to Lancaster
furniture family; ‘the Plutarch of the English Catholics’
• Compiled 5-volume Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of
the English Catholics
• Honorary recorder of Catholic Record Soc (est 1904)

9. TT Wilkinson, FRAS, of Burnley -- another
gentleman amateur
• Contributor to local and national mags, local papers, on maths, philosophy, astronomy, geology, history
• Published most of his work, on local topography and archaeology, in Transactions of Historic Society of Lancashire &
CHeshire
• Books: History of the Parochial Church of Burnley (1856); The Folk Lore of Lancashire (1867); Lancashire Legends,
Traditions, Pageants, Sports (1873) – jointly with friend John Harland
• From middling family of farmers and doctors, Mellor nr Blackburn; went to school then had private tutor; he and others
formed a mutual improvement society in Mellor
• Contributed poetry and Burnley district news to Blackburn Standard
• Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Soc, Corresponding member of Mcr Lit and Phil Soc, Hist Soc of L&C
• Became teacher – Burnley Grammar School
• Invited to contribute to Notes and Queries at its launch
• Contributed to local histories, inc Baines, Harland
• ‘Contributed oocasional papers on our local antiquities to the Burnley Advertiser, Burnley Gazette, on civil war, Pendle
Witches, ‘Burnley in the olden time’ – also for Blackburn Times
• Poetic eulogy in Blackburn Advertiser (handout) shows public status of the local historian

10. Not a gentleman, not an amateur: John
Roberts Boyle (1853-1907) of Hull
• Born Accrington, educated at Manchester Grammar School
• Swedenborgian minister in Hull, then Newcastle; wrote educational and
historical books, member of most of the learned societies of Yorkshire
• Record clerk to the Hull Corporation 1897-1905
• Popular archaeological lecturer
• 1905, caught trying to flog letters of Andrew Marvell to Hull Corporation
• Sentenced to 12 months with hard labour, died in Hull workhouse infirmary
• Shows the difficulty of being a full-time historian if you don’t have a private
income

11. Local editors and journalists as writers of
history
• Hewitson, co-editor of Tyldesley Diaries: son of a stonemason, apprentice printer
at Lancaster Gazette, reporter, editor in Preston, bought Preston Chronicle
• Some schooling in Ingleton, mutual improvement classes in Lancaster
• Succeeded another historian/editor on Preston Chronicle, William Dobson, author
of 9 books on Preston, member of Chetham’s Society
• Hewitson was a member of HSLC
• Journalistic involvemnt in local history not new: Roberts (1972) found that in
1840s, 31 of 49 provincial editors whose book output could be identified wrote
histories
• Provincial editors 'wrote local history, local history which was full of intense pride
of locality’ (23)
• The founding members of HSLC included 5 local paper editors

12. Anthony Hewitson
(1836-1912)
Hewitson’s history books
• Our Churches and Chapels, 1869
• Stonyhurst College, Its Past and Present, 1870
• Our Country Churches and Chapels, 1872
• The Tyldesley Diary, 1873 [with Joseph Gillow]
• History of Preston, 1883
• The Story of My Village, Ingleton, 1840-50,
1893
• Northward: Historic, Topographic, Residential, and
Scenic Gleanings, &c. Between Preston and
Lancaster, 1900
• Preston Court Leet Records : Extracts and Notes,
1905
• Diary of Thomas Bellingham, An Officer under
William III, 1908

13. Local newspaper readers as writers of local
history
• Nearly 500 reader-contributors to
the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle met
together in 1891
• A report of the event said that 9/10
owed their title of ‘contributor’ to
their involvement in the ‘Notes and
Queries’ column of local history,
folklore etc.
• The contributors were given a
historical tour of Newcastle by Boyle,
in the days before he started stealing
manuscripts
All part of Kidd’s ‘local history culture’
Elite members of learned societies felt 'a sense of responsibility for the dissemination of knowledge of the local
past to the wider public.'

14. 3. Publishing history in local print media
Newspapers the most widely published and read local media
containing history, but also local/regional magazines …
1820s surge of provincial literary miscellanies, e.g. Lonsdale Magazine,
including local history and topography.
Notes and Queries launched in
London in 1849; by the end of
the century at least 30 regional
or local Notes and Queries had
been published, becoming
particularly popular from
the 1870s onwards.

15. 0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Newspaper Magazine Newspaper Magazine
1800 1900
Approx. numbers of metropolitan and
provincial newspapers and magazines,
1800
Provincial
Metropolitan
London local
The majority of periodical titles were provincial …

16. 0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Newspaper Magazine Newspaper Magazine
1800 1900
Approx. numbers of metropolitan and
provincial newspapers and magazines,
1800 and 1900
Provincial
Metropolitan
London local
The majority of periodical titles were provincial …

17. 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1851 1855 1856 1860 1865 1870 1871
Numbers of
London and
provincial
newspapers,
1851-71
Provincial
London
(Stamp Returns, Newspaper Press Directory)

18. 0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.2
No.ofarticles/no.ofissues
Articles containing words beginning 'antiquar'A crude word search of the
British Newspaper Archive,
excluding London
publications, finds a growth
in historical material
through the century, with
steep increases in the 1820s
and 1840s-50s.

19. The local weekly paper was central to
Victorian history publishing
• For most people, the main way they read history was probably via the local
paper – more than books
• More local paper titles thru 19C – but low sales
• From late 1850s, sales overtook London papers (no nationals)
• Most popular type of Victorian newspaper was local paper
• Local papers different than now – more magaziney
• History = staple type of content
• Evidence of popularity: Blackburn Times started series of local hist stories
illustratd with pen and ink drawings 1888, ‘Bits of Old Blackburn’ – editor
JG Shaw later claimed they had to print 500 extra copies each time it
appeared, and the columns were later collected in book form (Poos 16-17)

20. 1890: How much history in the local paper?
Lancaster Gazette: 52,000 words in 24 sampled issues (of total 104
issues per year)
= 225,000 words per year
x no. of English weekly newspapers (1000)
= 225 million words of history in local weekly newspapers
1890: How much history in books?
391 books and new editions published in 1890 (Publishers’ Circular
‘analytical table’ for 1890, ‘History, Biography &c’ category)
x average no. of words per book in that category (224,000 words)
= 87 million words of history in books

21. Examples of history in Lancaster Gazette, 1890,
during boom period – a fairly typical local weekly
6/26 issues, Jan-March
Old inscription in Lisbon (29 words) History of interment in churches (110)
Cashbook of poet Beranger (144) Origin of Christian fasting (85)
Finds in ruins of Fleece Inn (178) Origin of hospitals (170)
Round Lancaster Castle, IX: Hornby
(cont.) (2,000 x 3)
Women executed in French Revolution
(246)
Local chronology for 1889 pt. 2 (1224) History of title, Duke of Lancaster (68)
Barrett Browning memorial (612) On this day in history (110)
Old Lancaster Names, pt. II (cont.)
(2,000 x 2)
Dark history of Seward mansion,
Washington DC (289)
Ttraditions of Valentine's Day (1037)

22. Lancaster Gazette
7 Jan 1804, p4
But history –
including recent
history was also
part of the local
weekly from the
beginning of the
century …

23. Lancaster Gazette
February 25, 1804 p4

24. Lancaster Gazette May
20, 1809; p4

25. A spoof prologue, lampooning
the antiquary, followed by a
faithful transcription of Potts’s
1613 account of the trials of the
Lancashire Witches (see
handout), which continued
weekly. Readers were expected
to deal with huge slabs of
transcribed historical documents.
Lancaster Gazette
23 Dec 1820

26. History was
used by local
papers to trade
on local
identity. Central
place of history/
memory/
continuity in
identity.

28. Ilustration in
masthead of paper
in Victorian new
town of Barrow-in-
Furness had history
as its central image
– features from
Furness Abbey.

29. Preston Chronicle emblem, 1 September 1855
Preston Pilot emblem, 13 September 1851
Political differences in such imagery – Whig
Preston Chronicle featured the Magna Carta
alongside a sceptre and local historical emblem,
while the Tory Preston Pilot omits the Magna
Carta and places the Crown at the centre.

30. Historical fiction (see
Graham Law’s work on
the central role of the
local weekly in publishing
new fiction in the late
19C – e.g. Hardy’s Tess of
the Durbervilles was
commissioned by the
proprietor of the Bolton
Journal

31. Typical late-
century dedicated
local history
column (see
preface to a
similar new
column in the
Burnley Advertiser
in the handout)
Lancaster Gazette
20 Dec 1879

32. Local papers published sheet
almanacs, intended to hang on
the wall for the following year.
These usually features
chronologies of key dates in
local and national history.

35. Types of historical content in 19C local press
Biography Chronology – inc almanacs
Memoir/reminiscences Extracts of historical documents
Topography Archaeology, e.g. finds during construction
Architecture Poetry
Fiction Drawings, maps, photographs, diagrams
Summaries of lectures/talks Touristic guides
Dialect writing Folklore, legends, customs, superstitions
Notes and Queries Dedicated history columns/series

36. History as essential to local weeklies
‘It is essential … that [a local newspaper publisher] make it first and
foremost a paper for the district, devoting a large amount of space to
domestic news, and, if possible, giving some attention to local history
and antiquities … if it can secure as editor a gentleman who takes an
interest in county history and antiquities so much the better.’
A. Paterson, ‘Provincial Newspapers’, in Progress of British Newspapers in the Nineteenth Century (London:
Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, 1901), pp.79-80.

37. But beware …
• Often motivated by local pride/patriotism – boosterism – selective
• Local papers increasingly presented cross-class consensus
• So … little on local slave trade involvement? Chartism?
• But … local press not unitary, even within one paper, plus rivalry
between papers
• So memoirs of old Chartists do appear in some local papers

38. Like the Tyldesley Diary,
many local history books
began their lives as
newspaper content, before
being republished in volume
form often by the same
newspaper publisher, who
also published books as a
sideline.
Hewitson had the Tyldesley Diary ‘peer
reviewed’ before publishing it in book form.
He sent proofs to:
• Alexander Goss, Bishop of Liverpool
• Henry Fishwick of Rochdale – wrote or edited more
than 25 books, inc histories of Rochdale
and Lancs, member of learned socs.
‘To the notes and gleanings page of the
[Rochdale] Observer Literary
Supplement he often contributed’
• Rev JD Banister, vicar of Pilling, antiquary
• James Pearson of Milnrow, expert on
Fylde dialect, contrib to Notes and Queries
(Hewitson diary 22 Thursday Feb 1872)
Lancaster Gazette 18 Dec 1875

39. As with this news
report, local
patriotism, and a
feeling that local places
were almost sacred in
their meanings to local
people, was central to
newspapers’ publishing
of history (see
introduction to new
Burnely Advertiser
column on handout).
Lancaster Gazette 27 June 1868

40. Conclusions
• More history in local papers than in books
• For all but the elite, history was consumed mainly through local
weekly newspapers
• This history was based on a sense of place
• Local papers central to many parts of Victorian culture
• Local press traded on local ID – memory/continuity central to local ID
• Variable quality in terms of accuracy and omissions– but fascinating
stuff!