A fresh look at the history of the Bucks Free Press has been added to its website.

The new section follows the paper’s story from its launch in 1856, through the advances in printing methods of the early 1900s, and the challenges of wartime paper rationing to the slimline process modern technology allows today.

The site includes nearly 40 pictures of employees at work which help explain the changes in newspaper printing and production processes over nearly 150 years.

The Bucks Free Press was first published on December 19, 1856, when it was known as the South Bucks Free Press and the front page was reserved for adverts, as was the style at the time.

There were no typewriters so the stories were all hand-written and then the type was handset, letter by letter, ready for the printer. Single sheets of paper had to be hand-fed into a massive machine to produce the paper at the Little Market House in High Street, High Wycombe.

In 1924, a rotary printing press was installed, which speeded up the process considerably but it was in 1938 that the paper enjoyed a boom year with the installation of a much larger and faster printer which allowed 32-page issues to be produced.

There was a big increase in staff in 1939 but then war broke out, leading to paper rationing and a loss of employees as young men were called up to fight.

In 1956 the BFP moved out of the town into its present offices and warehouse in Gomm Road. The paper was printed here in hot metal fashion until the early 1970s.

The changes in production methods since then have slashed the paper’s workforce and in 1990 the press was decommissioned and the printing was contracted out.

The website’s new history section also explains the way the paper is produced today, as stories, photos and adverts are brought together entirely on screen to produce what is now the county’s biggest newspaper.

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