The Biggleswade Chronicle has served the East Beds and South Cambs community for more than a century.

THE first issue of the Biggleswade Chronicle and Sandy Times was published on Saturday, October 10, 1891. The publishers were Percy Calder Tomson, of St Neots, and James Phillips and they were based on premises in Market Square, Biggleswade, now occupied by Woolworths.
These three pages consisted of national news – the death of Mr Parnell, the annual conference of the National Liberal Federation, pictures of Dr Spenser Watson, John K Morley, Mr Gladstone and Sir William Harcourt.
An editorial note in the first edition said: “The fact that a town of the size and importance of Biggleswade not already possessing its own newspaper is sufficient apology – if apology were needed – for the appearance of Number One of the Biggleswade Chronicle.
“The announcement of its publication has elicited many expressions of approval, and it will be our endeavour to make the Chronicle worthy of support."

In 1892 Mr Tomson, met with a leg accident and was unable to get from St Neots to Biggleswade to run his new newspaper and Charles Elphick took it over as proprietor and editor.
It was the beginning of a reign that was to last nearly half a century and link the name of Elphicks firmly with the Chronicle.
During Mr Elphick’s long association with the newspaper he maintained a high standard in the matter of news presentation and his deep religious convictions gave emphasis to his desire to achieve this objective.
The title was changed on August 9, 1918 to The Biggleswade Chronicle and Bedfordshire Gazette and that remained the same for the next half a century.

Mr Elphick was propreitor for almost 50 years until his death in March 1942 – two months before his jubilee.
This tradition was faithfully carried on by his only son, Mr ER (Ted) Elphick,and under his direction new developments came into being – particularly on the pictorial side.
His death in 1947 robbed the Chronicle of one who had probably done more to bring it to the position it held as east Bedfordshire’s leading newspaper than anybody else.
The Biggleswade Chronicle was put up for sale and was eventually part of the Bedfordshire Times stable. It has remained there ever since although its sister paper is now called the Bedfordshire Times & Citizen.

Fred Simms, a local lad brought up in Upper Caldecote, took over the reigns of editor from Frank Goodman in 1949 and he was to stay in the chair for 31 years.
By the time he left the editor’s chair, at the end of 1980, it was the strongest paid-for newspaper in Bedfordshire.and had increased its weekly sale from 7,000 copies to a little under 14,000.
The last newspaper to be printed in Biggleswade rolled off the flat-bed presses at Elphicks in Shortmead Street in 1953 as production was moved to a rotary press at Bedford. The newsroom remained at Elphicks for a further decade but in 1966 the paper severed its links with the Biggleswade printers by moving to its present premises at 7 High Street.

Among those who worked under Fred Simms was Sue Steptoe, who first joined the Chronicle as a reporter in 1969.
She recalled: “Life as a reporter on the Chronicle in the 70s seemed far less intensive than the pace of life that most jobs demand today.
“That’s not to say we didn’t work hard but with a team of five news reporters plus an editor and sports editor there was time to research a story, write it up, check the facts and stop for coffee before moving on to the next story.
“On the Chronicle you didn’t sensationalise a story, you reported the facts – accurately"
Following his retirement in 1981, Fred penned a weekly column for the Chronicle until ill health forced him to stop in the summer of 1991. He died in September of that year, just one month short of the centenary of the newspaper he had done so much to build.

A succession of editors took over afterwards but the 1980s was a tricky period.
Weekly sales held up well but the Chronicle was coming under increased competition, mainly from free newspapers.
EMAP bought the title in 1986. Staff cuts came. Established journalists left or retired and weren’t replaced. A move of the production side to Bedford was not a success as sales began to drop. And the economic recession of the early 1990s took its toll with papers much smaller in size.
In January 1991 the first woman took over the Chronicle – Geraldine Throssell - and she made the short switch to Biggleswade to rebuild the paper Great attention was paid to the core ingredients – the town and village news, local features and sport.
The formula worked and for the first time in a decade the Chronicle consistently increased its weekly sale. Her deputy, Chris Hall, stepped into her shoes and the success story continued.

In 1996 he was followed by Jim Stewart, who edits the Biggleswade Chronicle to this day.
In 1996 the Biggleswade Chronicle, together with its sister papers, was bought out by Johnston Press. The business has grown considerably in the past decade and is now one of the three largest newspaper publishers in the UK.
Now the Biggleswade Chronicle is produced through desk top publishing and printed in Peterborough.
The newspaper is now complemented by this website which has continued to grow in visitor numbers and page impressions in the past five years.

First Edition - 1891

Front page - 1945

Front page - 1965

Front page 1980