PROVINCIAL NEWSPAPERS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES: THE CREATION OF A SEASIDE RESORT NEWSPAPER FOR ILFRACOMBE, DEVON, 1860-1.

The use of provincial newspapers by historians continues to develop. Study into their form and function is ongoing, while programmes of digitisation and electronic publication are opening up new opportunities for research. This article considers the relationship between newspaper production and the development of local communities. Provincial newspapers reported on the evolution of particular places and the lives of their inhabitants (as they continue to). As such they constitute a valuable primary source of information for the historian today. In addition they are cultural artefacts, a tangible legacy of the role of provincial newspapers in fashioning and sustaining local networks and identities. This article takes as its case study the earliest surviving newspaper for the seaside town of llfracombe, north Devon, a publication that lasted for just one year. The newspaper, Bright's Intelligencer of 1860-1, is being selectively digitised as part of 'Devon History Online', a new electronic repository. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]