A FATHER OF PENNY JOURNALISM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 110, 11 May 1908, Page 2

A FATHER OF PENNY JOURNALISM.

FOUNDER OF THE KENTISH EXPRESS.

(Abridged . from Mitchell's Press <

Directory). To have founded a newspaper and lived to see the celebration of i . its iubilee has been the lot .of few journalists. Mr Henry ■-Igglesden, who died on April 24 of last year, was one who achieved this distinction. Born on June 24, 1826," he was twenty-nine years of age when he brought out, under the title of the Ashiord and Alfred News,'the first penny-paper ever published in' Kent; and one.ot the most notable features, of the. undertaking was that he.produced it himself, aided only by one lad. These two set-the type, printed the paper on an <t>ld-fashioned hand "press, and on July 14, 1855, published, with mingled pride and anxiety, the first number. One hundred and fifty copies,,were printed, and all were sold. .Before the end of the year the circulation had risen to 700 copies a week, and, encouraged by this success, Mr Igglesden enlarged the paper to four pages. News from! the Crimean war,'reports of Parliament, and law causes had occupied a considerable portion of the pages of the first twenty-five, numbers, but, in the enlarged paper, prominence was given to local news. Many of the old-fashioned country people professed to regard with .contempt a paper published at the low price of one penny, and, when any news appeared which brought-to light things whic,h, for personal reasons, they would, have preferred to keep dark, they spoke scornfuUy, of the vulgarity of the cheap press:1 Prominent among, these people were the magistrates. "" "They felt they had some reason for not having the public^ enlightened as to their conduct of tne law)" wrote one who was well ac?uainted with the town. "One of hem, for instance, sent a 4arm servant to prison for three months, with hard labour, for putting two ounces of boiled pork into his pocket when leaving the breakfast table, because he was not then hungry, and intended to eat it later on in the* morning. ' This sentence,' exclaimed the ' Ashford magistrate, 'will teach you others that you are only expected to partake of your master's'victuals at; his table.' The wretched man pleaded that he thought he had done lio harm, but he spelit thre.6 months/ in gaol, notwithstandingj and was ' ruined for ever. Another justice sent a young boy to prison for six weeks for pickhig up six walnuts under a tree in Eastwell Park. The case was reported in the Ashford and Alfred News, a copy of which found its way to the Home Secretary, who ordered the boy's rel lease.

On May 4, 1861, the paper appeared, ,for the first time under its present title, the Kentish Express and Ashford News. It was now a success-^ ful paper. Advertisements were com-r ing in plentifallyij:; and places outside' the district of Ashford were urging that events occurring in their town and villages should be reported. Mr Igglesderi did not'let this opportunity for increasing the influence of his paper pass. He dispensed with the partly Jprinted portion supplied by Messrs Cassell and Co., enlarged,the size of the pages, and devoted the whole of 'the paper to news of local interest, with just a summary of general news. In 1865 the paper was enlarged to eight pages. ■ One Sunday night in the spring of 1891 a great disaster overtook the paper. By an act of incendiarism, the whole of. the composing room, the stereotyping room, and machine rooms were destroyed. ' Not a single letter of the type was left, most of the machinery was damaged beyond repair, and/tons of paper were de&r

troyed. On Monday morning, while the flames were still raging, a telegram was sent to a firm in Edinburgh requesting them to piit in hand at once an order for newspaper type. Members of the firm then went to London and arranged for the setting of the type for the coming week and following issues. Messrs Lloyd, the proprietors of the Daily Chronicle, kindly undertook to print the paper until the premises at Ashford were rebuilt. On the following Friday afternoon the Kentish Express was published at the regular time and circulated all over the country as usual. In 1903 the paper was permanently enlarged to its present size—ten or twelve pages, as required—and in the following year the firm was converted into a private limited liability company. Eleven years later the Kentish Express celebrated its jubilee, and from all parts of the country and from all classes, came congratulations. The Archbishop/ of Canterbury testified to "the service the paper had long rendered by its careful and calm reports of incidents and utterances of public interest," and the proprietors of Lloyd'si Weekly News, the first p^enny paper published in' Great Britain, offered its warm congratulations to the first penny paper published in the County of Kent; 1