Hertfordshire Newspapers

and other sources of Hertfordshire News

 

Guide to Old Hertfordshire

HALS list (pdf file) of
Hertfordshire Newspapers
and other sources of Hertfordshire News

See Also
British Library Newspaper Catalogue

The British Newspaper Archive Online

Victorian Illustrated Newspapers and Journals

at the British Library

Online Newspapers from around the World

for an example of what can be found see

News from New Zealand about Tring

 

Papers (and some magazines) detailed on this web site in

 First Published Date Order

The Gentleman's Magazine was published between 1731 and 1922. It contains many items relating to Hertfordshire, including birth, marriage, bankruptcy and death notices. Its Hertfordshire entries have been reprinted in book form.

The Hertfordshire Mercury is first recorded in 1772, although only a very few copies have survived before 1825. It is still being published.

The Times is an indexed national daily newspaper first published in 1785 and often included news items gleaned from local papers such as The Country Chronicle. It has been digitised and is currently available online.

The County Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser for Essex, Herts, Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, &c was first published in 1788 but appears to have ceased covering Hertfordshire in 1841.

The Observer is a national Sunday newspaper, first published in 1791 with digital archives.

Australian Newspapers, some from as early as 1803, are available online and a search shows they contain news of people from Hertfordshire who emigrated to Australia - and interesting (or unusual) news items from the home country.

The Bucks Gazette  - published 1821-1871 covers Tring and adjoining areas.

The Guardian - a national newspaper with digital archives online from 1821

The Court Journal - a London paper, founded in 1829, which contained Royal and Court news.

Hertford and Ware Patriot was a radical paper published in Hertford 1833-1835.

The Reformer (a Hertford based paper) started in 1834 and ran for a few years under this title.

Aylesbury News (later Bucks Advertiser) was first published in 1836 by John Gibbs and often included news and adverts relating to Tring and other nearby parts of Hertfordshire. It was later edited by John's son Robert, who published a number of historical works on Buckinghamshire. One of these Buckinghamshire Local Occurrences (issued in four volumes) includes a fair number of references to Hertfordshire events.

The Era was a weekly London newspaper first published in 1838, containing general news but with a particular interest in pubs and the theatre.

The Illustrated London News was a London based publication, first published in 1842, which frequently included Hertfordshire items, with illustrations at a time when these were virtually unknown in the local press.

The Bedford Times was founded in about 1845 and claimed (in 1854) to be the General Advertiser of Beds, Herts, Hunts, Bucks, Cambs & Northamptonnshire but its contents suggest that it's effective coverage was confined to Bedfordshire.

The Field was first published in 1853 and it a good source of information on hunting and other sports - with good coverage of the more important Hertfordshire events.

Buckinghamshire Advertiser covers the area around Uxbridge. It was founded in 1853 and had various titles. Initially it covered Rickmansworth and Watford, but later Watford papers will be a better choice.

In 1855 the Newspaper stamp duty was removed and this led to the founding of many more local weekly newspapers.

 The St Albans Times & Herts Advertiser was founded by Robert Gibbs (brother of John Gibbs) in 1855, and the business later expanded, first as the publishers Gibbs & Bamforth, and later as Home Counties Newspapers Ltd. Its history is recorded in the book Family Group.

The Royston Crow was launched in 1855.

(St Albans Almanack - Annual Directory starting 1860)

Herts & Essex Observer was founded in 1861 and was printed in Bishop's Stortford.

Leighton Buzzard Observer  first published in 1861, with an online index which includes a useful number of Hertfordshire references.

Penny Illustrated Paper was a national paper published between 1861 and 1913. It has been scanned and a online index is available and contains some useful Hertfordshire references, often with illustrations.

Watford Observer has been published from 1863

Hemel Hempstead Gazette has been published since 1867

St Albans Reporter may have started in 1875 as an alternative title to the Luton Reporter, and become a separate paper for a few months in 1876.

Hertfordshire Standard was published in St Albans between 1877 and 1907.

Truth was a national periodical published between 1877 and 1957

Pictorial World was a national paper published between 1874 and 1892 which contains some Hertfordshire material.

The Herts Illustrated Review was a monthly magazine, published in 1893, which folded after two years.

The St Albans Clock Tower was published between 1895 and 1897

The Herts Genealogist and Antiquary was published in parts between 1896 and 1898

The Home Counties Magazine - Quarterly magazine between 1899 and 1912, which includes articles on Hertfordshire

Watford Illustrated started to be published in 1914 and is a valuable source for local information at the start of the First World War, but only lasted for 80 issues.

Hertfordshire Countryside - a magazine first published in 1946 on a quarterly basis, later monthly, which contains a significant amount of information on Hertfordshire history

Herts Past & Present - Journal of the Hertfordshire Association for Local History, published in the Spring and Autumn, starting with Spring 2003. It contains serious in-depth articles which often provided background information on life in Hertfordshire in the past.

There are temporary pages, which will be updated later for the   Hertfordshire Express, Hertfordshire Naturalist

See Modern Hertfordshire Newspapers

Newspaper Web Sites

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

February 2010   Links to Australian Newspapers, and The Court Journal
January 2012   Home Counties Magazine added
June 2012   Era added
July 2019   The Field Added