Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette

The Bath Chronicle was first published in 1760 by Cornelius Pope. Pope had served his apprenticeship with a printer called Boddely. When Boddely died Pope took over sole management of the Bath Journal, which he published for five years before he established the Chronicle.

The Chronicle was initially 4 pages long and priced at two pence halfpenny. It comprised mostly foreign news, some domestic news, advertisements and poetry. Pope also advertised that his printing office sold all sorts of patent medicines, a common sideline for printers and booksellers of the day.

The Bath Advertiser, which had been established in 1755, changed its name in 1760 to the Bath Chronicle & Universal Register in order to compete with the Chronicle. Pope complained bitterly in the Bath Chronicle that the Bath Advertiser had “pirated part of our Title viz. Bath Chronicle”. He cautioned the public to be careful to ask for the Bath Chronicle AND WEEKLY GAZETTE!

Pope sold the Bath Chronicle to William Archer and his partner, Richard Cruttwell (whose brother owned the Sherborne Mercury) quickly acquired sole ownership. The paper remained in the Cruttwell family until 1830. It appealed to the nobility, landed gentry and clergy since it advocated the interests of the influential agricultural and commercial classes, and had strong ties to the Established Church. Readers in 1846 were urged to support the protection of agriculture against the Anti-Corn Law League.

By 1880, proprietors Charles Bleeck and Joseph Leach were selling an 8 page Bath Chronicle at 2d per issue and by the turn of the 20th century it was priced at 1d. A daily evening version was issued in 1877 and ran alongside the weekly. The weekly Bath Chronicle absorbed the Bath Weekly Argus in 1911.