The Derbyshire Times has celebrated its 150th birthday by receiving a special letter of congratulations from the Queen.

The Chesterfield-based weekly published its first edition on January 7, 1854, and this week published a commemorative 24-page broadsheet supplement, which included the royal good wishes.

The supplement also recalls how a paper, then the Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, was first published by Francis Augustus Hatton, printed on a hand-turned flat-bed machine and sold for 4.5d.

The following year it became the first penny paper in the county when its cover price was reduced following the repeal of the Stamp Act.

It also became the first weekly paper in England to introduce the linotype setting machine in 1893 and was the first paper bought in England by Edinburgh-based F W Johnston and Co Ltd, now Johnston Press.

As well as looking at how ownership and production have changed, the supplement also looks back at how its design has changed over time, most noticeably in 1986 when, after 132 years, it adopted a tabloid format.

Editor Mike Wilson said: "Over the years the Derbyshire Times has become an integral part of the lives of people and a paper of record to which they can refer for information.

"In the years ahead we aim to continue that position of trust which successive editors and staff have built up with readers and look forward to serving them for another 150 years and beyond."

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