A PIECE of history from 1837 quite literally walked through the door of the Monmouthshire Beacon office when a man walked in with one of the first original, and potentially the longest remaining, copies of the paper.

We compared our findings to today's modern world.

Looking through a lens to October 1837, we uncovered the places where the publication was located. The Monmouthshire Beacon was first located on Agincourt square with the editor Thomas Farrar.

The publication was based there for nearly 40 years until it transferred to Monmouth Market Hall in 1876.

The Beacon stayed in the market hall for the longest amount of time, with 87 years passing before a fire destroyed the building and ruined the archives of the newspaper dating back to 1865. Which makes this find all the more special.

50 Monnow Street was the next location for the printed publication, and it stayed there for 20 years until it moved again to the bright, yellow building on 56 Monnow Street, known as Cornwall House.

The building was made a grade II listed property and on July 28 HRH Princess Margaret countess of Snowdon visited Monmouth to officially open the building.

The publication included a personal write up, announcing the opening of the Monmouthshire Beacon and we investigated how the publication has developed since it was first released.

In the news at this time, there were several news items from different areas and an array of sources – this could potentially be because of the high costs of employing reporters at the time.

The year 1837 was a busy time. It marked the beginning of civil registration in England and Wales and the Government began to record births, deaths and marriages.

It was also the year Queen Victoria ascended to the throne after the passing of King William IV.

Foreign Intelligence was one of many of the topics in this printed publication as it was a key subject at the time, and it allowed the community an insight into global progression.

The newspaper at the time recorded both local and national events and included an array of advertisements covering daily life and concerns at the time.

One advertisement in the article was by a company called Norwich Union Societies which were a British Insurance Company and another one from the Reversionary Interest Society, which used to deal with the interests of people who had passed away.

One advertisement came from Great Reduction in the price of Paper Hangings.G.Smith. It investigated a man who worked in the ‘paper staining’ industry who offered ‘fashionable patterns’ to his customers.

The reference ‘paper staining’ might often bewilder readers in today's modern world but it’s what we call wallpaper today. This could imply that working on interior decoration became a growing interest at this time.

It absorbs us into the Victorian era and how people were considering that decoration contributes to homelike setting.

G.Smith was a cabinet member, corner and upholster who specialised in making wooden furniture including cabinets and dressers. Associating this with the year, 1837, at this time working in a domestic setting would have been a popular career path.

Transportation was another field which has advanced a lot since 1837. As you can imagine there weren’t electric vehicles and automatic cars. It was primarily horses and carriages.

A transportation service called New Fly Van operated in Monmouth taking people in the community to various locations between Monmouth, Cheltenham and London.

A ‘fly’ is a vehicle which moves quickly and could include a vehicle which was led by horses for public passengers or a delivery wagon.

In contrast to ‘staining walls’ and a ‘fly’ in the newspaper featured an advert about cough medicine, Davie’s Cough Pills, prepared by R. and J. Davies chemists.

In this era, it started to become more normalised to talk about medicine as people became more health conscious and developed a further understanding of diseases.

Florence Nightingale had a profound impact on public awareness of health, despite not having any direct links to Monmouth she made a huge impact on society.

One of the most heroic stories presented in this article is the story of a Yorkshire man called Mr Turner who faced an encounter with a tiger who served as a soldier in the East Indies on the Malabar Coast in his earlier life.

Mr Turner showed courage, leading a quick-thinking approach so he could survive this frightening encounter.

Alongside the news stories, many public auctions took place at the time including selling livestock like horses and selling premises.

Auctions were often a popular way to advertise, but unlike today where we have estate agents and property listings online, these were placed in the newspaper - their main source of information.

At this time, Panic 1837 was an issue causing much financial strain on people. It started in the United States until it rippled across the globe. This led to financial stresses like bank failures and therefore auctions could have been a significant way to earn money for landowners and people in the community as people hurried to sell their assets.

Although Panic 1837 was a huge issue, panic could have also occurred in everyday life. If someone had gone missing, informing people of this would've travelled slowly, especially in a weekly newspaper as it might only be seen days after the person had disappeared.

There would have been no updates until the next copy of the paper was published and quick alerts if they were found. The only other quick methods included: posters or word of mouth.

If you weren’t buying the paper, it would limit the number of people it would reach.

However, in today's world this news could be issued almost immediately, including evidence like CCTV footage.

This is a reminder of how far the news industry has developed but to appreciate that despite the methods evolving, the purpose of news still remains the same and the paper continues to stand the test of time.