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British newspaper website

mikejee

mikejee

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Staff member
For those that use this website (the paid one, not the one you can get at some libraries), you should not assume that entries you find will necessarily stay on the site. A post on a genealogical website has shown that they seen to have removed a number of papers. So far only two have come to anybodies notice, the Reading Mercury & Lloyds weekly newspaper, but I'm sure there are more. so far all the removed issues seem to be 1901-1914. They have claimed it is due to "copyright issues", though almost all these, I understand, would be out of copyright and at present they have added lots of 1914-1918 issues (including the Reading mercury), which possibly might have coopyright issues
 
Its on offer at the moment for £1 for one month but I dont know if this is just for people who have used the site in the past which I had done.
 
Maybe because copyright has expired they can no longer charge to access the material. There is also the possibility that some freelancer wrote for that paper in those years and died less that 70 years ago leaving his material still in copyright and outside of anything they might have paid for.
 
I don't think the first would be it, as the majority of the material on the website that they do charge for is pre 1900 . Also there are many websites thta charge you for access to material which is out of copyright (a lot of the maps on the oldmaps site, Ancestry etc), but which the reason for the charge is giving you access to it, which is perfectly OK. But it could be the latter reason, though I'd be surprised, as it would mean that the writer, or his descendent would have kept records detailing it all, and not many journalists I know would be that meticulous.
 
mikejee said:
But it could be the latter reason, though I'd be surprised, as it would mean that the writer, or his descendent would have kept records detailing it all, and not many journalists I know would be that meticulous.
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Not necessarily. If the descendant knew that the ancestor wrote for that paper and saw his byline in the online copy, that should be enough.
 
Mike today on the British Newspaper site under the Coventry newspaper 14 November 1834 I found that under 'The informers defeated' my gt gt grandfather Abel Taylor a retail brewer of Bordesley was charged with permitting drinking on his premises after 10:00 pm on 25th October. The case was dismissed. Can you help in knowing what the name of this establishment was? Thanks.
 
In Pigots directory of 1835 it just lists Abel Taylor as a beer retailer and a maltster of 151 High Street Bordesley. I can't see a name.

Janice
 
I am not sure - I vaguely remember that sometimes people sold beer in their front room (or equivalent) without it being a formal pub but I am sure Mike or someone will be more clued up than I am.
Abel seems to have had 2 listings 151 and 158 High Street. I think he is also listed in later directories at different addresses round Birmingham still as a beer retailer. I just looked on Ancestry and he seemed to crop up for a while.
Janice
 
Yes I have found him more than once on Ancestry unless there is more than one Abel. But it seems likely as his father had the same occupations as him, malster, etc. In fact he had a lot of land etc but went bankrupt.

Abel Bankruptcy1.jpgAbel Bankruptcy2.jpg
 
At that time it was quite easy to get a beerhouse licence , which permitted one to sell beer (& cider I believe) but not wine or spirits. Many of these beerhouses were in the front rooms, or sometimes the front and backrroms, of small houses, though not always. I can find no mention of a name of the pub, but the names of beerhouses were often not included in directories. Also directories of the 1830s and before I suspect included mainly people who bought a copy of the directory , or paid money, and so coverage was not always very good (I can produce no written evidenc eof this, but this seems the only explanation of omissions. One can understand a house or shop having no one at home when the directory man called, but I would consider this unlikely with a pub/ beerhouse ). there is no mention at all of 152 or 158 in the 1845 and 1850 directories, and in the 1855 one no 151 is occupied by a druggist, and 158 by a fender maker. So I think that it certainly was no longer a pub by 1855, or possibly by 1845. there isno mention of him in any of these later directories at all, so he had probably died or retired.
Abel Turner is also listed as a maltster at 46 Deritend in Wrightson's directory of 1833, so he probably started as a maltster and later ran a beerhouse for a while
 
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