Type | Weekly local newspaper |
---|---|
Owner(s) | Iliffe Media |
Founder(s) | Thomas Baily and William Thompson |
Editor | Kerry Coupe |
Founded | 1710 as Stamford Post, 1712 | as Stamford Mercury
Political alignment | Historically Tory, now non-political |
Headquarters | Cherryholt Road, Stamford, Lincolnshire |
Circulation | 4,570(as of 2022) [1] |
Website | stamfordmercury |
The Stamford Mercury (also the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, the Rutland and Stamford Mercury, and the Rutland Mercury) based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, claims to be "Britain's oldest continuously published newspaper title", although this is disputed by Berrow's Worcester Journal which was established in 1690. [2] The Mercury has been published since 1712 but its masthead formerly claimed it was established in 1695 and still has "Britain's Oldest Newspaper".
Three editions (Stamford and The Deepings, Rutland, and Bourne) are published every Friday. The ABC circulation figure in 2011 was 16,675. [3]
Stamford Mercury Limited was acquired by Westminster Press Provincial Newspapers in 1929 and divested to the East Midland Allied Press for £57,500 in 1951. [4] From 1980, it was merged into EMAP Provincial Newspapers [5] and from 1985, it was reorganised into Welland Valley Newspapers. [6]
In 1996, EMAP divested 69 newspapers including the Stamford Mercury to Johnston Press in a deal worth £211 million. [7] In 2007, the Welland Valley stable transferred to fellow group company, East Midlands Newspapers. [8] [9] In 2017, the Mercury along with 12 other publishing titles and associated websites in East Anglia and the East Midlands transferred to Johnston Publishing East Anglia pending disposal of that company to Iliffe Media for a gross cash consideration of £17 million. [10] [11]
An edition of the Mercury from 22 May 1718 is the earliest newspaper in the British Library's newspaper reading room, The Newsroom. [12]
The Mercury possesses the largest archive of any provincial newspaper. [13] It contains over 15,000 newspapers and is complete from the middle of the 18th century. It also holds substantial numbers of annual volumes and individual copies prior to that, dating back to 1714.
Since 2005, the archive has been in the care of the Stamford Mercury Archive Trust (www.smarchive.org.uk). The Trust received a grant of £305,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to undertake a five-year conservation programme. The Trust set out to microfilm every known copy of the Stamford Mercury in existence. Access to the archive is free for personal research. A copy of the complete microfilm run of the paper is available at Stamford Library. [14]
Lincolnshire is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to the north, the North Sea to the east, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland to the south, and Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire to the west. The county town is the city of Lincoln.
Spalding is a market town on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. The town had a population of 34,113 at the 2017 census. The town is the administrative centre of the South Holland District. The town is located between the cities of Peterborough and Lincoln, as well as the towns of Bourne, Market Deeping, March, Boston, Wisbech, Holbeach and Sleaford.
Bourne is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the eastern slopes of the limestone Kesteven Uplands and the western edge of the Fens, 11 miles (18 km) north-east of Stamford, 12 miles (19 km) west of Spalding and 17 miles (27 km) north of Peterborough. The population at the 2011 census was 14,456. A 2019 estimate put it at 16,780.
Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed buildings and five medieval parish churches. It is a frequent film location. In 2013 it was rated a top place to live in a survey by The Sunday Times. Its name has been passed on to Stamford, Connecticut, founded in 1641.
South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. Its council is based in Grantham. The district also includes the towns of Bourne, Market Deeping and Stamford, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.
Market Deeping is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, on the north bank of the River Welland and the A15 road. The population of the town at the 2011 census was 6,008.
The River Gwash, occasionally Guash, a tributary of the River Welland, flows through the English counties of Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire. It rises just outside the village of Knossington in Leicestershire, near the western edge of Rutland. It is about 39 kilometres (24 mi) long.
Grantham and Stamford is a constituency in Lincolnshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Gareth Davies, a Conservative.
Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the i, The Scotsman, the Yorkshire Post, the Falkirk Herald, and Belfast's The News Letter. The company was operating around 200 newspapers and associated websites around the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man when it went into administration and was the purchased by JPIMedia in 2018. The Falkirk Herald was the company's first acquisition in 1846. Johnston Press's assets were transferred to JPIMedia in 2018, who continued to publish its titles.
The Harborough Mail is a weekly newspaper which serves Market Harborough and the surrounding area. The Harborough Mail was owned by Welland Valley Newspapers, a company established in April 1883, but is now part of Northamptonshire Newspapers but the Harborough Mail itself was established in 1854. Northants Newspapers and Welland Valley Newspapers are both part of Johnston Press. The newspaper is brought out every Thursday and contains the usual local newspaper fair such as local news and sport results. The newspaper also contains a cartoon called 'Mal & Lard' - which features two ducks called Mal and Lard, and a children's club called "Harbie's Gang". Harbie the newshound makes regular appearances at public events and has a whole page dedicated to him and his gang every week. The Mal & Lard cartoon is drawn by Harborough artist Nathan Shelton under his business name Ant Creations.
Yattendon Group plc is a British-based private company owned by the Iliffe family. It has interests in Vancouver, Seattle, agriculture, marinas and local newspaper printing and publishing. It is named after the village of Yattendon in Berkshire.
The A6121 is a short cross-country road in the counties of Lincolnshire and Rutland, England. It forms the principal route between Bourne and Stamford and the A1 in Lincolnshire, continuing on through Ketton in Rutland to its junction with the A47 at Morcott. Its south-western end is at 52°35.5860′N0°38.0820′W and its north-eastern end is at 52°45.9120′N0°24.0660′W. The road has increased in importance with the rapid expansion of housing in this part of South Kesteven.
The Lynn News is an English newspaper published by Iliffe Media and appearing each Tuesday and Friday in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England.
Bourne was a railway station serving the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, which opened in 1860 and closed to passengers in 1959.
The Peterborough Telegraph, or PT as it is known locally, is the local newspaper for the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. It is based at New Priestgate House in the city centre.
Luffenham railway station is a former station of the Syston and Peterborough Railway serving the villages of North and South Luffenham, Rutland.
Stamford East railway station was the Stamford and Essendine Railway station in Water Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire. The line was worked by the Great Northern Railway but retained its independence until 1886, when the GNR took the line on perpetual lease.
The Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph is the local newspaper for north and east Northamptonshire and is the sister paper of Northampton's Chronicle & Echo. It is based at Newspaper House in Rothwell Road, Kettering, and has since 1996 been part of the Johnston Press newspaper group. The paper also has district offices in Wellingborough, Rushden and Corby.
The Northampton Mercury was an English news and media company founded in 1720. Published in Northampton, it was sold throughout the midlands, as far west as Worcester and as far east as Cambridge. When it ceased publication in 2015, it was the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.K.
The Bourn and Essendine Railway was a seven mile long branch line which connected Bourne in Lincolnshire to the East Coast Main Line in the village of Essendine in Rutland. The line was opened in 1860; it was a single line and served the town of Bourne and the villages of Thurlby, Braceborough and Essendine. Its line ran through the ceremonial counties of Lincolnshire and Rutland in the East Midlands of England.