Pressing on with news (From Gazette Series)

Pressing on with news

LOCAL Newspaper Week began on Monday and we at the Gazette decided it was time our publication made the news rather than just reporting it.

The Gazette has been bringing the news to your community for 126 years.

The first edition appeared on October 19, 1878, under the direction of Frederick Bailey and his son, Albert, who was just 18 at the time.

A small account book of the Dursley, Berkeley and Sharpness Gazette started on October 19, 1878, details the first deliveries - 490 papers at sixpence halfpenny per dozen, total cost £1 2s 1d.

The Gazette was the third paper to be launch in Dursley. Two previous papers, the Dursley Advertiser (1854-55) and the Dursley Express, Wotton Guardian and Berkeley Gazette (c1865) both failed with a short time.

The steam printing of the Gazette, which took place at Gloucester, was beset with difficulties so the Baileys decided to take over the printing and publishing of the Dursley, Berkeley and Sharpness Gazette.

The issue of February 12, 1879, was the first to be printed in Dursley - one page of local news and advertisements was produced.

The other three broadsheet pages were supplied by the London Printer Cassells.

The Gazette sold out in two hours.

During the next few months more machinery was installed and two pages of the paper were devoted to local news.

There is some dispute as to where exactly in Dursley the paper was initially printed but eventually the handpress was installed in a wooden building behind Frederick Bailey's shop until the move to Kingshill in 1892.

In the 1960s , with the Stroud News and Journal and the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard added to the Bailey's stable of newspapers, the company acquired land at Long Street, Dursley, to build a new printing works.

The Easter weekend of 1966 was selected for the Big Move - transporting the entire works from Kingshill down the hill to Reliance Works.

The Gazette marked its centenary in 1978 with a series of celebrations culminating in a visit by Princess Anne to lay the foundation stone for new offices.

The 1980s marked various changes to the Gazette including replacing hot metal setting at Dursley and changing from broadsheet to tabloid in 1986.

In 1997 the Gazette, along with the rest of the Bailey Newspaper Group, was sold to Southern Newspapers.

That company in turn became Newscom and, in 2000, the group was bought by current owners Newsquest.

The Gazette is still based at Reliance House in Long Street, Dursley, although the printing works, which were situated at the back of the office building, have been demolished to make way for eventual housing and industrial development.

* See this week's issue for people's memories of the Gazette.