I had a really useful and informative mail the other day from top walker and fellow Panoramio poster Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler. Peter, whose walking exploits are documented extensively in his huge, beautiful gallery, loves local history just like I do and was keen to let me know about a new online newspaper archive site.
Hi Bob,
Have you checked out the The British Newspaper Archive site here?
Click on the screenshot image to visit The British Newspaper Archive.
You have to pay, and copyright is ridiculous, but you can get a free search to get an idea if the info is relevant. There are thousands of entries for Brownhills, and just a few of the publications are shown below…
Birmingham Daily Post, and Gazette
Lichfield Merury (1899-1903)
Tamworth Hertald (1870-1944)
…And 4 from Staffordshire
All the best
Peter
First impressions are very positive. It isn’t too expensive when you think of the cost involved in scanning all that meterial, and I think this could be a very useful resource indeed. It’s interesting that the content is advertised as ‘growing all the time’. Some of the transcription of articles into searchable text seems a bit flaky (as you’d expect given the printing constraints of the day and condition of source material), but with careful term selection you seem to be able to turn up a wealth of material.
I’d like to thank Peter for that, and for all his help and positive comment through the year. I don’t get chance to reply to as many of his wonderful comments on my Panoramio gallery as much as I’d like. Merry Christmas old chap, may your walks take you to some wonderful places in 2012.