IT'S not every day you reach your 130th birthday. That is the milestone The Press reached last Tuesday – and we didn’t even get a telegraph from The Queen.

We did celebrate the anniversary with a spread in the newspaper, however.

On these pages today we have a further selection of old photographs of The Press in times past. And, for your curiosity and delight, we also have a few snippets from the very first edition of the newspaper, as well as a court story from the second edition, on October 3.

The Evening Press, as it was then known, was a comparatively compact affair, running to just two pages, the first of which was – in the fashion of the day – wholly taken up by advertisements.

In small print on Page 2, crammed together without any photographs to relieve the eye, were court reports, some opinion pieces commenting on the state of Yorkshire and the wider world, and some more general local news. They illustrate both how much and how little times have changed.


From The Evening Press, Monday, October 2, 1882

Signs of Progress in York “We understand that Mr Win Chapman of this city has purchased a large extent of property in Leeman Road adjacent to the works of the North Eastern Railway Company and those of the York Engineering Co Ltd, and proposes erecting several hundred cottages for workmen, the rent of which will not exceed £10 a year.”


Evening Press leader column, Monday, October 2, 1882

“It has been the fashion to assume that England is losing her place in the industries of the world.

The iron trade, lovers of protection have said, is passing away from us, Germany and Belgium being able to surpass us in cheapness and quality.

The allegations would be serious if true. Fortunately, they appear to be founded solely on imaginary data.”


From the Evening Press, Tuesday, October 3, 1882

Small-pox patients on trains “At the East Riding Petty sessions before Col Prickett and Mr EP Maxsted, Robert Brodie of Withernsea, an apprentice to a cooper in Hull, appeared to answer a summons issued at the instances of the North Eastern Railway Company for travelling in a second class carriage from Withernsea to Southcoates (Hull) whilst suffering from small-pox.”

The story that follows is long and complex, but it boils down to this: Mr Brodie visited a doctor because of spots on his face, was told he had small-pox, and that he should return home straight away and put himself into isolation.

He chose to ignore this advice, and instead took a train to Withernsea, where he was eventually stopped and arrested.

The train carriage subsequently had to be disinfected. And poor Mr Brodie himself? He was fined ten shillings, and £2 two shillings costs, the newspaper reported.