List of Illustrations

0.1

Location map of Preston. Outline map by D-maps.com, CC BY 4.0.

30

1.1

Men and women signing marriage register (%) 1840–1880, selected areas. Source: Registrar General annual reports. Author’s graphs, CC BY 4.0.

40

1.2

‘A Good Friend’ by CF Inston FRPS, Northern Photographic Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1907, programme, opp. p. 16, used by permission of Liverpool Archives.

51

1.3

Preston Guardian Animals’ Friend Society membership badge, twentieth century. Photograph by the author, CC BY 4.0.

53

1.4

‘At the Bar’ by Marcus Stone, wood engraving by Dalziel, for original monthly serial of Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, 1864, Chapter 6, ‘Cut Adrift’, facing p. 54. Scanned by Philip V. Allingham, Victorian Web, CC BY 4.0, http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/mstone/14.html

54

1.5

Reading room and news room (at rear), Harris Free Library, Preston, 1895. Used by permission of Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston, England, all rights reserved.

59

1.6

‘The Addison Family at Breakfast’, monochrome cabinet card reproduction of painting by Alexander Masses, Liverpool, 1822. Used by permission of Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston, England, all rights reserved.

61

1.7

Readers and the closeness of their relationship with a local newspaper, author diagram, CC BY 4.0.

63

2.1

Office of Preston Pilot, Church Street, Preston. Detail from ‘The Grey Horse’, J. Ferguson, 1853. Used by permission of Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston, England, all rights reserved.

69

2.2

The Institution for the Diffusion of Knowledge (mechanics’ institute), Avenham, Preston. Engraving from Charles Hardwick, History of the Borough of Preston and Its Environs, in the County of Lancaster (Preston: Worthington, 1857). Scan from Preston Digital Archive, CC BY 4.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5753101486/

71

2.3

Literary and Philosophical Institute and Winckley Club, Winckley Square, Preston. Author’s own copy, CC BY 4.0.

72

2.4

News room sign in window of the Lion Tavern, Moorfields, Liverpool, built c.1841. Author’s photo, CC BY 4.0.

75

2.5

Advertisement for Alexandra Hotel, Blackburn, listing newspapers available in its news room, Preston Herald 10 November 1866. Author’s transcription, CC BY 4.0.

76

2.6

Working men’s reading and news room, York, British Workman 20, 1856, p. 78. Used with permission of the Nineteenth-Century Business, Labour, Temperance & Trade Periodicals project, CC BY 4.0, www.blt19.co.uk

79

2.7

Lord Street working men’s news room, Carlisle, Illustrated London News, 20 December 1851, p. 732. Used with permission of University of Central Lancashire Special Collections, CC BY 4.0.

79

2.8

Advertisement for John Proffitt, ‘hairdresser, news agent, &c &c’. Preston Herald, 1 September 1860, p. 4. British Library microfilm, MFM.M88490 [1860]). © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

82

2.9

Preston Guardian offices, Fishergate, the town’s first purpose-built newspaper premises. Preston Guardian, 17 February 1894. British Library MFM.M40487-8. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

89

2.10

Postcard c. 1900, showing Harris Free Library and town hall, Preston. Preston Digital Archive, CC BY 4.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5753101486/

93

2.11

Men standing to read newspapers in the news room of the Harris Free Library, Preston, 1895. Used by permission of Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston, England, all rights reserved.

94

2.12

Paper boy on New Street station, Birmingham, detail from ‘New Street station going North’, Illustrated Midland News, 13 August 1870, p. 105. British Library, EWS4150. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

96

2.13

Man reading newspaper in Fishergate, Preston, 1906, postcard. Used by permission of Preston Digital Archive, CC BY 4.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/3082785495/

98

2.14

Reproduction of water colour painting by Walter Langley, ‘One Man One Vote’, Cornish Magazine 1 (1898), opp. p. 161. Author’s copy, CC BY 4.0.

99

2.15

J. Smith, ‘newsagent and stationer’, Fylde Street, Preston, c.1909. Reproduced by permission of Mr William Smith, Preston, CC BY 4.0.

101

2.16

Shop of newsagent Sarah A. Spiller in St Georges Road, Bristol 1906. Postcard, Bristol Archives: 43207/35/1/50, CC BY 4.0, http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/GetImage.ashx?db=Catalog&type=default&fname=43207-35-1-050.700x700.jpg

101

2.17

Preston booksellers and newsagents, with indices of readership, 1853–1901. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

102

2.18

Detail from ‘Everyday life in & around the city, no. 14, The Free Library’, Yorkshire Telegraph and Star Saturday evening ‘Green ‘Un’, 13 April 1912, p. 4, British Library NEWS5890. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

105

2.19

Rochdale Rd branch library reading room, Manchester, c. 1899, photograph by Robert Banks, from William Robert Credland, The Manchester Public Free Libraries; a History and Description, and Guide to Their Contents and Use (Manchester: Public Free Libraries Committee, 1899), p. 48.

106

2.20

Ancoats branch library reading room, Manchester, c. 1899, photograph by Robert Banks, from William Robert Credland, The Manchester Public Free Libraries; a History and Description, and Guide to Their Contents and Use (Manchester: Public Free Libraries Committee, 1899), p. 96.

106

3.1

Front page of Christmas supplement, Manchester Weekly Express, 22 December 1860. Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council. All rights reserved.

121

3.2

Glasgow Herald sales and circulation, showing wartime rises, 1843–1919. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

127

3.3

Crowds outside the Peterborough Advertiser office at the end of the Boer War, 1902. From David Newton, Men of Mark: The Makers of East Midland Allied Press (EMAP 1977). Courtesy of Peterborough Telegraph, CC BY 4.0.

129

3.4

Second-hand values (% of cover price) at Winckley Club, Preston 1846–1900: Morning newspapers. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

134

3.5

Second-hand values (% of cover price) at Winckley Club, Preston, 1846–1900: Local weekly/bi-weekly newspapers. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

134

3.6

Second-hand values (% of cover price) at Winckley Club, Preston, 1846–1900: Punch, Illustrated London News. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

135

3.7

A Victorian time capsule containing Kendal local newspapers, buried in 1855 under the ‘new market house’ and rediscovered in 1909 during the demolition of what had become the ‘old Market Hall’, now in Kendal Museum. Author’s photo, CC BY 4.0.

137

3.8

Cover of Victorian scrapbook. Author’s copy, CC BY 4.0.

137

4.1

Anthony Hewitson, Preston reporter, editor and newspaper proprietor. Carte de visite, photo by C. Sanderson, Preston. Used with permission of Hewitson’s great-grandson Martin Duesbury, CC BY 4.0.

145

4.2

Print personnel in England and Wales, 1851-1901, showing the proportion outside London. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

146

4.3

Opening ceremony of the Preston Exhibition of Art and Industry in the Corn Exchange, 21 September 1865. Copyright Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston, England, all rights reserved.

158

4.4

Identical pages carrying Hewitson’s train crash story, in the Kentish Independent (British Library NEWS2740), Bury Free Press (British Library NEWS4711) and South Bucks Free Press (British Library MFM.M22733), Saturday 30 September 1865. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

169

5.1

‘Notes in an early newspaper train’, The Graphic, 15 May 1875, p. 472. British Library, HS.74/1099. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

183

5.2

Geographical coverage trends in main Preston weekly papers, 1860-1900. Author’s graphs, CC BY 4.0.

186

5.3

The editor’s room, Preston Guardian and Lancashire Evening Post, 1894. Preston Guardian jubilee supplement, 17 February 1894, p. 2 (British Library MFM.M40487-8). © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

199

6.1

Advertisement for Cowper’s Penny News & Reading Room, Preston, Preston Chronicle 30 September 1854, p. 1, from 19th-Century British Library Newspapers database. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

213

6.2

Type of publication as percentage of copies available at Liverpool Lyceum, 1869-99. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

222

6.3

Type of publication in Preston Free Library reading room as percentage of publications available, 1880-1900. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

224

6.4

Type of publication in Barrow Free Library reading room as percentage of titles available, 1889/90-1900/01. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

225

6.5

Advertisement announcing opening of Preston Free Public Library, 1879, Preston Chronicle 28 December, 1878, p. 1, from 19th Century British Library Newspapers database. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

227

6.6

Types of newspaper available in Preston Free Library reading room, 1880–1900, as percentage of all newspapers.

230

6.7

Types of newspaper available in Barrow Free Library, 1888/89–1900/01, as percentage of all newspapers.

230

6.8

Type of newspaper as proportion of all titles available, Liverpool Lyceum, 1869-99. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

249

7.1

Bass advertising card, 1909. Author’s copy, CC BY 4.0.

264

7.2

‘When the boats are away’ (1903), by Walter Langley. Image courtesy of the Art Renewal Center, all rights reserved, www.artrenewal.org

264

7.3

Barrow Herald masthead, 10 January 1863. Image used by permission of Cumbria Archive and Local Studies Centre, Barrow, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

275

7.4

Close-up of Barrow Herald masthead, showing local imagery. Image used by permission of Cumbria Archive and Local Studies Centre, Barrow, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

275

7.5

Masthead of the Barrow satirical magazine Vulcan, 1874. Image used by permission of Cumbria Archive and Local Studies Centre, Barrow, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

276

7.6

Preston Chronicle masthead emblem, 5 April 1862. Image used by permission of E. Michael Atherton, CC BY 4.0.

277

7.7

Preston Pilot emblem, 13 September 1851. Author’s copy, CC BY 4.0.

277

7.8

Preston Herald sheet almanac for 1894. Author’s copy, CC BY 4.0.

286

8.1

Dialect word in classified advertisement, Blackburn Weekly Standard & Express, 12 October 1895, p. 4. Author’s transcription, CC BY 4.0.

313

8.2

Dialect literature and dialect in court reporting, 1830-99, selected Lancashire newspapers, per 100,000 pages. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

320

9.1

Column header, Football and Sports Special of the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star (The Green ‘Un), 31 October 1908 (British Library NEWS979). © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

330

10.1

‘“We’re in! [A ‘Green Un’ is bought by special subscription] A banquet follows.’ Cartoon from Football and Sports Special (The ‘Green ‘Un’), Sheffield, 21 September 1907, British Library NEWS979. © The British Library Board, all rights reserved.

350

10.2

Letters about Preston and proportion of Preston content, Preston Herald 1860-1900. Author’s graph, CC BY 4.0.

362