Historic newspaper lives again on website (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Historic newspaper lives again on website

1:16pm Friday 5th March 2010

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AN OUT-OF-PRINT book of extracts from a 19th century newspaper has been published in its entirety on an internet website.

Stokesley printer William Braithwaite launched The Cleveland Repertory and Stokesley Advertiser in January 1843.

The monthly newspaper cost 2d and its last issue was published in December 1845.

In 2004, local historian Beryl Turner borrowed a complete set of the original newspapers from friend and fellow Stokesley resident, Angela Wilson.

They belonged to her late husband, Maurice, whose family had kept them safe for 167 years.

Ms Turner said: “She’s a friend of mine and she knows I have got a lovely collection of books on anything to do with Stokesley. She said would I like to look at it.

“It was so precious that I didn’t want anyone to look at it or touch it, and I wanted to give it back as soon as possible.”

Ms Turner initially intended to extract information relating to her own family, but once she started reading, she was amazed.

It covered everything going on in Cleveland and North Yorkshire, including court proceedings, inquests and police reports, as well as general stories.

It also listed the names of those who went on holiday to Redcar, which was in its heyday then.

Tales included tragic deaths by drowning and burning, a gamekeeper shot by a poacher, and a rabid dog in Stokesley.

“It’s fantastic,” said Ms Turner.

“I was just amazed.

“It’s so interesting. It was over 160 years ago and a very different world, and you get a sliver of that world.

“There are some charming stories, but some grizzly ones too.”

Ms Turner’s 124-page book is out of print, but is available in full online thanks to Joe Richardson, who is responsible for Stokesley Pride In Our Town Association’s website.

The book can be found in a section about Stokesley Local History Society, along with the Stokesley directories from 1793 to 1901, which contain more than 4,000 names of gentry, residents and traders.

Mr Richardson said: “I was utterly amazed. I didn’t know about the existence of the book.

I was completely stunned by it.”

“The insight it gives you into the way society worked 170 years ago is absolutely amazing – how obsequious they were to the gentry, the better-off people.”

Perhaps the most extraordinary extract recounts an epic battle between a lion and a bull mastiff.

It tells of a “perfectly harmless”

lion owned by a local man which broke its chain and “while perambulating the town”

came into contact with a ferocious bull mastiff. The lion had to be rescued by onlookers.

To read more, paste www.stokesleypride.org.uk/ html/slhsg_publications.shtml into your browser and follow the instructions under the heading The Cleveland Repertory and Stokesley Advertiser.

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