South Wales Echo

Originally a weekly publication, the South Wales Echo, circulated in Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and South Wales. Coverage included news relating to local industries and surrounding areas. The paper is still published today as a daily tabloid, with separate editions printed for mornings, evenings, and weekends: News Extra, City Final, and Weekend Edition, respectively.

Learn how holiday celebrations were received in years past. We read in the 8 November 1897 issue of the aftermath of a Guy Fawkes celebration gone wild.

‘Complaint was made with reference to the conduct in High-street and Commercial-street, especially near the Westgate Hotel, where a crowd numbering some thousands of people gathered, and a large quantity of fireworks were discharged by members of the crowd, amongst whom were the youths who had been summoned. […] Mr Lyndon Moore, solicitor, who appeared on behalf of one of the lads, said that for over 200 years the celebration had been held in Newport, and this was the first time that the police had issued summonses against those participating in the celebration. […] A gentleman who was staying at the Westgate Hotel […] declared that he had never seen such disgraceful proceedings as those which took place at Newport in any town before. Mr Moore replied that no other country in Europe had possessed a Guy Fawkes. What the lads had done, if it had been done 20 or 30 years ago, would have been regarded as a patriotic action’.

The paper, established in 1884, is published by Media Wales Ltd, previously called Western Mail & Echo Ltd. Western Mail Ltd merged with David Duncan & Sons, which published the South Wales Daily News and the South Wales Echo, in 1928. Subsequently, the South Wales Daily News ceased publication. Western Mail and Echo Ltd became Media Wales Ltd in 2007.