Celebrating 125 years of the Northants Telegraph

Back on October 4, 1897, the very first edition of this newspaper was published.

From the outset, the Evening Telegraph described itself as a daily journal for Northamptonshire and district.

And while the printed version may have changed considerably over the years with our news now being available online as well, this newspaper still seeks to serve the people of Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough and Rushden just as it first did 125 years ago.

We are your local newspaper and we aim to keep you up-to-date with all the stories that matter from where you live.

We might not have as many offices as we used to, but times have changed and even with email and social media, we still have an office in Kettering where it all started.

The ET was based in Workhouse Lane, later renamed Dryland Street, Kettering, in a three-storey building which remained its headquarters until the move to new premises in Northfield Avenue in 1976.

The first edition cost readers one halfpenny and was printed on a hand-fed flat-bed press.

Rotary presses were not introduced until two years later to meet the public demand for news of the Boer War.

Early weekly sales of the Evening Telegraph were between 40,000 and 50,000, partly due to the interest in the daily drama created by the war.

When the war finally ended in May 1902, the ET’s peace edition was given away free to readers.

In its formative years, the ET was delivered by newsboys on foot, a few cyclists, horse-drawn transport and trains.

As the desire for local news spread to outlying towns and villages, the first motor van deliveries were made in 1907.

It was not until 1912 – 15 years after the ET was launched – that bosses splashed out on the paper’s first typewriter.

Until then reporters wrote their news stories in longhand using pen and ink.

In 1921 the ET became the first provincial paper to install an electric telegraph system to receive national stories from London.

When war broke out, ET readers helped the war effort by raising enough money to buy seven Spitfires.

In 1947 East Midland Allied Press became the parent company of the Evening Telegraph and its weekly titles.

In 1976 the ET moved its HQ from Dryland Street to Northfield Avenue, Kettering, where a new offset press enabled experiments with colour.

The ET celebrated its 90th birthday in 1987 by introducing direct computer input of news and sport.

In 1992 the Chronicle & Echo at Northampton was bought by the ET’s parent company Emap.

Two years later papers rolled off ET presses in Kettering for the last time, with the printing operation moving to Northampton.

In 1996, Edinburgh-based Johnston Press bought all Emap newspapers, including the ET, for £211 million.

In 1997 the ET and the Chronicle & Echo joined forces to produce a rare Sunday edition following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

One was also produced by both papers for the 1939 declaration of war with Germany.

1998 saw the official opening of the newspaper’s new home in Rothwell Road, where it remained until 2016.

Despite the loss of district offices in Wellingborough, Rushden and Corby with the paper going weekly in 2012, we still have an office in Kettering town centre and are now owned by National World.

And even though the paper has gone from six nights a week to being published weekly, its online presence is ever-growing with more than 56,000 followers on our Facebook page.

You can also keep-up to-date with the latest news via our Twitter and Instagram accounts.

But this newspaper is not just about the breaking news, we are a campaigning newspaper which fights on behalf of our readers.

The man who brutally murdered Collette Gallacher in Corby is finally on the sex offenders register following a dogged campaign by her family.

Adam Stein, now in his 60s, raped and murdered the six-year-old in Corby in 1986 but after his release in March 2021, he was not placed on the sex offenders register (SOR) because his crimes were committed before 1997.

Collette's sisters Claire and Lauren Holmes, backed by this newspaper and two former home secretaries, had called on the government to change the law so that those who offended before 1997 would be retrospectively placed on the register.

Although the law change that Claire and Lauren had called for has not been enacted, Stein has since been placed on the register.

We saw the huge potential the Rushden Lakes development could bring to the area and threw our weight behind the plans which were unanimously approved by the former East Northants District Council in October 2012.

It may have taken several years to come to fruition but this newspaper followed its progress throughout the planning and building process, and five years since it first opened, the retail and leisure scheme has had 26 million visitors and created more than 2,000 jobs in retail and leisure.

We are also a community newspaper which steps in when we can to support those who need it – a good example of this is our incredibly well supported Christmas toy appeal which collects thousands of toys each year for children in need across the county.

This newspaper holds authorities to account and asks the questions you want answers for.

We share your stories of the good times and the bad.

We have been bringing you the news since 1897 and will endeavour to continue doing this, evolving and growing to meet the needs of the ever-changing world of news.

SEE MORE: 125 years of the Northants Telegraph in pictures