A blast from the past is a little bit of our own history

It dates from a time long before the web and apps. But it is evident to see from the newspaper bill published on page 34, that the job of this newspaper hasn’t changed very much in nearly 131 years.

The bill reproduced here is from July 1890 and is for the Lynn Advertiser.

It had been bought at a previous auction in Holt for £120 (a fact recorded on its back) to be hung in a local rectory. A recent clear-out saw it put up for auction with Snettisham saleroom Cruso & Wilkin.

Sharp-eyed Lynn News receptionist Kathy Ensor spotted it on Cruso & Wilkins advert earlier this month and it was decided to make a bid on the lot, with a view to hanging it in our reception at 17 Tuesday Market Place, ready to welcome people when we reopen to the public after lockdown.

But as it turned out there was no need. Cruso & Wilkin auctioneer Richard Matthews very kindly said we could have the bill as thanks to Kathy for all her hard work on their behalf in preparing adverts for them each week.

The framed bill is now with us and speaks of a time when the paper was the Lynn Advertiser and Wisbech Constitutional Gazette.

The Advertiser was founded by Lynn printer John Thew at 1 High Street in 1841. The rival Lynn News was not founded until 1856.

It would not be until 1922 that the Advertiser and News were to be owned by the same group (EMAP) and not until 1945 that the two were merged into the bi-weekly Lynn News & Advertiser. The LNA became the Lynn News in 1985.

The bill was advertising the edition of the paper whose front page is reproduced here, right.

Among the items on offer were “The Swaffham Footpaths ... proceedings before the magistrates” and “The Crisis in Oddfellowship” and “The Marriage of Viscount Marsham”.

The Lynn News is proud to be following in the footsteps of John Thew. It is still offering unrivalled coverage of West Norfolk with “Local Notes and Topics of the Day” as the bill has it, except these days it is a 24-7 offering on the website and now the app.

The app is the new and easy way to access the Lynn News, offering as it does a page-turning edition to give you a copy of the newspaper on your phone or other device. It offer all the latest news, views and sport and just like the 1890 paper version according to the bill, national news. Plus a puzzles section. Go to https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/subscribe/