Malton & Norton Heritage Centre

Research Notebook

Newspapers

Historical Background

Before mentioning the Malton newspapers specifically, some context about the general newspaper situation of the period should be noted.
From the early 18th century there were taxes on publishing - newspapers, bills, pamphlets and at some point a tax on paper. In 1814 the tax on newspapers was set at 4d per copy. Legislation followed that spelt out the scope of the tax - those that contained any "public news, intelligence or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon, or upon any matter in Church or State," and/or those which appeared more frequently than every twenty-six days. In 1836 the tax was reduced to 1d and eliminated altogether in 1855. It was therefore not until this 'tax on knowledge' was eliminated that the general population could afford to buy a newspaper and proprietors could viably satisfy this need.

The Malton Messenger

The Malton Messenger began as a monthly periodical in 1853; it successfully progressed and was printed as a broadsheet in June 1854. The company had hoped to produce a weekly edition of the paper by this time but owing to the scope of the tax retained their monthly frequency. Once these restrictions were lifted the Malton Messenger was free to publish weekly, the first edition on 14 July 1855 [1] See an early example of the Malton Messenger, Saturday, 19th April 1862 (warning large file)

The edition of the 6 January 1856 carried an announcement of the intention to enlarge the newspaper and this happened from the issue of 9 February 1856. This issue carried an article describing the production process and explained the move from a 'press' to a machine which could print three times quicker.

• [1] The Malton Messenger: 1 July 1854

The Malton and Norton Gazette

Malton's first weekly newspaper commenced publication on Saturday, 30th June, 1855. It cost 1d and a short item announced the opportunity created by the repeal of the newspaper tax. The front page of these early issues contained advertisements from local traders. The back page contained 'Local Intelligence' - items of likely local interest to Maltonians. In between the front and back pages was coverage of progress with various wars (Crimea, Sebastapol), Parliamentary matters, and coverage of notable law, police and commercial matters. It was printed and published every Saturday morning by the Proprietor, George Barnby, bookseller, stationer, &c., at his printing office, Wheelgate, 'where all Advertisements, Communications, and Books for Review, are to be addressed.' From the very first issue a list of sellers in the surrounding villages was published. It was not until issue 6 that availability from additional sellers in Malton was publicised: Mr. Collier and Mr. Harrison, Booksellers; Mr. Masterman and Mr. Hide, Hairdressers. On the death of George Barnby his son Edmund, who was already working in the business continued it. Edmund went to live in Bournemouth leaving estate valued at £14,164 (Western Gazette, 5 March 1909)

Please view the copies of the newspapers below. Each file is approximately 1.5MB. To keep the file sizes to a minimum I have only included the pages covering Malton news and advertisements.

Regrettably the issues for Saturday 1st September 1855 and Saturday 29th December 1855 are not available.

Local Newspapers

The British Library has the following Malton Newspapers. Viewing at St. Pancras is generally via microfilm. See the British Library website for more details.

• Malton & Norton Gazette and General Advertiser: June 1855 to December 1857
• Malton Gazette: December 1857 to December 1884
• North-Eastern Advertiser, Malton Gazette and Ryedale Chronicle: January 1885 to December 1887.
• Malton Gazette January 1888 to September 1905.
• Malton Mail: October 1898 to January 1899 (this newspaper then amalgamated with the Yorkshire Observer).
• Malton Messenger: July 1855 to September 1939.

Malton Library has the following:

• Malton Messenger April 1854 to September 1939 mainly on microfilm
• Malton Gazette from 1819, some on microfilm, some original copies and I'm afraid some unusable due to poor condition. There's about 10 years missing, from 1954.
• Yorkshire Gazette from 1819 to 1854

The York Herald has coverage of some Malton events. York Reference Library has an almost complete run of this from 1790 through to 1889 and then as the Yorkshire Herald through to 1954. See also the library's newspaper index.

National Newspapers

Palmers Index to The Times lists articles about Malton going back to 1792. Possibly Malton's first bank robbery is described in the edition of 23rd March 1802. Mrs Pickering a Malton resident reached 100 years old and is referred to in the edition of 28th August 1843.

British Newspaper Archive

A project to digitise the newspaper holdings of the British Library is well underway, with the number of scanned images increasing daily. Although the newspapers scanned to date includes a number of Yorkshire newspapers (sadly not the Malton specific ones, yet) it is amazing to note that Malton gets a mention in many provincial newspapers. Not only are there scanned images of the newspapers but the software used captures the text digitally and so is searchable for specific content e.g. Malton brewery. The collection can be searched and images of appropriate pages viewed (fees payable).