Introduction

The significance and potential of provincial newspapers as historical sources are well recognised, and they continue to give rise to the production of targeted local and regional studies (e.g., in more recent years, Hobbs 2009a; Jackson 2010 and 2018; Storey 2015; Walker: 2006b and 2018). These have offered case-specific micro-historical investigations intended to highlight broader aspects of the nature and development of provincial, regional and local newspapers throughout the nineteenth century. They have also extended understanding of the range and detail of press content and its style. Such studies have identified similarities in, and differences between, provincial newspapers across Britain and Ireland, and have explored the complex and dynamic processes through which the press played a role in identity formation and place promotion. This overview of the history of the provincial, local and regional press considers factors influencing its development, composition and geographical character, and its diverse array of political, economic, social and cultural functions. The chapter refers to a number of individual and regional examples that reflect the contribution of publications to the life of localities or broader spatial areas across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Development and Format

Provincial press production expanded rapidly through the nineteenth century. This body of print media grew and developed alongside the publication of London-based ‘national’ or ‘British’ newspapers. Historians studying the provincial press now consider a broader spectrum of output as components of this ‘other’ press existing outside of London, thus embracing Scots, Welsh and Irish, county or other region-related publications, and city, town and urban district newspapers. This wide range of press outputs would meet reader demand both for locally or provincially distilled versions of national, international or general news, as well as for summaries of what was considered newsworthy or of material interest across the regions and localities that such publications were associated with and represented.

Terminology is not unproblematic, in particular the notion of there being a clear division between what constituted the ‘provincial’ and the metropolitan-based ‘national’ press. The former, in content and circulation, in effect functioned as the latter for many readers and indeed was read by a larger proportion of the population.