Newspaper’s 250 years celebrated in a new book

The 250th anniversary of the Shrewsbury Chronicle ­– one of England’s longest-running newspapers – has been marked with the publication of a book telling the paper’s story from the reign of George III to the present day.

From its launch in 1772, four years before the United States of America even existed, the colourful history of the Shrewsbury Chronicle is told in the new publication by former Chronicle and Shropshire Star journalist Phil Gillam.

“The Chronicle was the first newspaper I worked for, joining the team as a trainee reporter back in 1977,” says Phil. “Even then I was very much aware of the title’s long history and was very proud to be working for it.

“Decades later, while working at the Shropshire Star, I found myself contributing a regular weekly column for the Chronicle, delighted to be once again waxing lyrical about goings-on in my beloved hometown. So, I’ve really had an association with this newspaper all my life. I even had letters published in it when I was just 13 or 14 years of age.

“The book is mostly a work of historical record but there are elements of personal memoir in there too, a few funny stories, and also some superb essays from a number of former Chronicle journalists. As I was piecing it all together, I found it absolutely fascinating to see how this newspaper has evolved across 250 years.”

Many colourful characters helped shape the Chronicle across its two and a half centuries, including Sir Beville Stanier, the newspaper’s proprietor 1908-1916, who said ‘I’d rather keep two packs of hounds than one damned newspaper!’ and Fyfe Robertson who had been a young reporter in Shrewsbury before achieving fame years later as a television personality.

The book is available now from Waterstones in High Street, Shrewsbury, Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and Raven Books in Shrewsbury Market