About your Newspaper

For more than 115 years the Surrey Herald has reported the news and events from Chertsey and surrounding areas.

The paper came into being in 1892 when TJ Rawlings and Marshall Walsh formed a partnership to run a printing business in Chertsey. Mr Walsh was the first editor and within eight years the Staines & Egham News, and the now defunct Woking Herald, were born and the steam-driven presses were replaced with new ones powered by gas.

In those days the paper consisted of only four broadsheet pages and cost half a pence. But by 1939 the price had doubled and page count was increased to 16, leading to the claim that the Surrey Herald was the largest penny weekly newspaper in Britain.

The Herald was originally produced from two premises on opposite sides of Windsor Street and it was quite common for the people to see pages of made-up type being ferried across in barrows to be printed.

In 1934 two 18th century houses were demolished to make way for a modern office building which stood until 1988, when the company moved again, this time to Eastworth Road, Chertsey, where it is today.

A former editor, Mr A.J. Ledger, would often recount how, as a junior reporter at the turn of the 20th Century, he was required to walk to Sunbury every Saturday morning to deliver one paper!

When he signed-up as an apprentice in 1898, the terms forbid him to "waste the goods of his masters", play at cards or dice tables, and to haunt tarverns or playhouses. He was paid 2/6d a week in the first year, rising to 8/6d for the fifth year.

Mr Ledger retired in 1957 and was succeeded by the assistant editor, Mr W. J. G. Cherry. Big changes were to follow. An advertising department was formed under the management of the then sports editor, Mr A.H.C Ledger, and for the first time news was published on the front page (before that the front page was entirely adverts).

On Friday April 18, 1958, the Herald splashed with news of a Tory election victory at the polls and Woking Football Club winning the Amateur Cup in front of 77,000 spectators.

Fifty years later, in January 2008, the paper celebrates two equally momentous milestones. In January the last remaining black and white pages were replaced with full colour, and in June the companion website you are now reading was launched.

Our reporters and photographers have always prided themselves on bringing you the best stories and pictures from your area every week. Now we're thrilled to be able to deliver news to the website as soon as it happens.