The illustrious history of your favourite weekly newspaper

THE story of the Dursley Gazette is "one of sustained and continued development" to quote from the diamond jubilee supplement of 1938.

The Gazette was the third paper to be launched in Dursley. Two previous papers the Dursley Advertiser (1854-1855) and the Dursley Express, Wotton Guardian and Berkeley Gazette (c1865) both failed within a short time.

The Gazette sprang indirectly from the launch of the weekly Gloucester News in 1877. This was started at Gloucester by Frank Forrester, who later decided to publish two other weekly papers, one to cover the Forest of Dean and the other for the Dursley and Berkeley districts.

William Hatton agreed to be the local agent for the Berkeley district but Mr Forrester had difficulty in locating a Dursley agent to supply local news and act as sales agent.

Eventually Frederick Bailey - who had a stationery and printing business in Parsonage Street, Dursley - agreed to join Mr Hatton and become associated with the new paper which was first produced at Gloucester on October 19, 1878, as the Dursley, Berkeley and Sharpness Gazette.

A small account book begun on that date details the first deliveries - 490 papers at sixpence halfpenny per dozen, total cost £1 2s 1d. It cost one shilling for the carriage of papers from Gloucester.

From the start the paper, which was printed at Mr Forrester's steam printing works in Gloucester, was beset with innumerable difficulties. Time and again the printers failed to catch the train connections to Dursley and Berkeley.

In February 1879 Frederick Bailey and William Hatton gave the publisher notice that they would no longer continue as his agents.

But Mr Bailey was convinced there was scope in the Dursley and Berkeley areas for a local weekly paper. He also had a right-hand man in his son Albert. After discussion with Mr Hatton, father and son 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 - but it was better printed than the previous Gloucester version.

The other three broadsheet pages were supplied by the London Printer Cassells, who supplied pre-printed pages of national and foreign news and short stories to the provincial press.

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. There are three possibilities - in a shed at the rear of Frederick Bailey's Parsonage Street shop (now Bailey's News), in premises in Silver Street or in a workshop behind the former Hill's greengrocery, also in Parsonage Street. Eventually the handpress was installed in a wooden building behind Frederick Bailey's shop until the move to Kingshill in 1892.

The press could turn out two broadsheet pages at a time, printing the front and back pages first, then the reverse two, before folding.

The run was in the region of 600, half of which were taken to the Berkeley Road station at 5am on Saturday. The Berkeley mail driver delivered them to William Hatton, the agent. No other Gazettes were dispatched in bulk except 70 to Wotton-under-Edge.

Albert Bailey was definitely his father's right hand man. He was in charge of the Gazette editorial and reporting departments and wrote much of the copy himself. He also proof-read everything that went in the paper.

According to family history, Albert regularly reported an evening meeting, wrote out the copy the same night and early the next morning lent a hand with the setting-up of the type.

A skilled shorthand writer, Albert found news-gathering a relatively easy task. Much of the Gazette's success can be attributed to this enthusiasm for collecting every possible snippet of local news.

This emphasis on local news-gathering explains why the Gazette fared better than its predecessors and beat off opposition such as the well-financed but short-lived Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge Times, launched in 1905.

Gradually the Gazette forged its way ahead and Albert Bailey took a leading hand in its development.

More plant was installed and, when the home of the Gazette was transferred from Parsonage Street to the Kingshill site in 1892, Albert took the opportunity to acquire machinery to relieve the monotonous labour then associated with newspaper production.

A Model 1 Linotype machine was installed in Dursley in 1903 - the first to be used in Gloucestershire. The use of London-printed pages was gradually abandoned and by 1906 there were no pre-printed pages in the Gazette which then consisted of eight pages and cost one penny. The new machine speeded up the setting process so that more local news could be used.

The last Linotype in the Bailey printing works at Reliance Works, in Long Street, Dursley, was finally scrapped in 1986, 83 years after the first one was brought into service.

The company's expansion can be dated to soon after 1922 when Fred Bailey was catapulted into the editor's seat by the death of his father Albert. It was Fred's role to develop what had been achieved through the foresight of his father who had built up a fine printing plant.

By 1934 it was realised that if the Gazette was to continue to develop there had to be the means of producing larger papers and producing them more quickly. At this time the paper consisted of eight broadsheet pages but the company needed to produce up to 16 pages.

A Cossar press and a second Linotype machine were bought. The Cossar was regarded at the time as the most important stride forward in the Gazette's history. Until then the Gazette was printed in four editions only - Dursley, Wotton-under-Edge, Berkeley and Thornbury. The new press allowed immediate expansion with two new editions - Chipping Sodbury and the Gloucestershire County Gazette.

At this period in its history the Gazette cost 2d a copy and covered an area of nearly 500 square miles. Its circulation was said to be far in excess of any other weekly paper in the area. It boasted that it was strictly neutral in politics and catered for no particular or exclusive class of the community.

Throughout the years of the Second World War, the Gazette carried on despite enormous difficulties. The paper began 1940 as an eight-page broadsheet and as the war progressed, it varied between six and eight pages. This low pagination was forced upon the company by the lack of staff and advertising but mainly because a shortage of newsprint.

It was during the war that Fred Bailey's sons Michael and Peter Bailey began working for their father.

Two decades later with the Stroud News and Journal and the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard added to the Bailey's stable of newspapers, the company acquired the 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 new building provided 8,000sq ft of office accommodation and ancillary facilities. Its construction allowed the editorial, advertising and accounts staff to finally transfer along with the lithographic department, from Kingshill.

But the winds of change were blowing and the advent of photosetting - typesetting by computer - was to change forever the way newspapers were produced.

Baileys bought their first photosetting machines in 1977 and although by today's standards it was appallingly slow and limited, it was nevertheless a breakthrough. For the first time "cold" type instead of hot metal setting could be used and this started an inevitable train of events leading to direct keying and full page on-screen makeup, ending production methods which had been used by the printing industry worldwide for decades.

Although "new technology" was heavily opposed by the powerful printing unions, it was here to stay. By 1984 Baileys was ready to take the plunge and replace hot metal setting at Dursley.

In 1986 a market survey had revealed a preference among readers for tabloid newspapers and the Gazette changed from broadsheet to tabloid on May 16, 1986.

The death of Fred Bailey in January 1989, at the age of 89, marked the end of traditional management at Baileys.

As technical innovation accelerated within the newspaper industry at large and changes loomed ahead for the company, Baileys decided to appoint a managing director from outside with knowledge and experience of new technology. Tony Crook became managing director in 1989 in place of Michael and Peter Bailey who had held the post jointly. He stayed with the company until 1993 when control of the company was largely ceded to the fifth generation of the family.

Michael Bailey's children Rachel and Sarah were majority shareholders and their husbands, Martyn Williams and Nick Priest took over the reins of the business - Martyn as commercial director and Nick as financial director.

But life moves on and in December 1997 the Gazette, along with the rest of the Bailey Newspaper Group was sold to Southern Newspapers. That company in turn became Newscom and three years ago, 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 was situated at the back of the office building has recently been demolished to make way for housing and industrial development.