A 150-year-old weekly newspaper archive has been saved for posterity after its office was closed and staff moved to the headquarters of a sister daily.

Newsquest has confirmed that the Clacton & Frinton Gazette and Harwich & Manningtree Standard will now be run from the Colchester Daily Gazette’s office after their old HQ in Jackson Road, Clacton, was ruled unfit for purpose.

However, the company says reporters working for their titles will continue to work remotely on their respective patches.

And as a result of the move, archived copies of the Standard dating from 1880 to the 1970s have been given over to the Harwich Society.

Chief reporter Lorraine King said: “The Harwich Society is the best group possible to take over the responsibility of safeguarding and preserving these important records of the town’s history as we look to move offices.

“We are so pleased and grateful for them for taking these on and hope they can provide some interesting reading to others in the future.”

David Whittle, the Harwich Society’s archivist, welcomed the archived editions.

David, pictured, said: “I have completely revamped our collection by building shelving to accommodate the whole collection and to improve access – they are a fabulous source of local history and are well used.

“We still collect every paper on a weekly basis and are currently having the more recent copies bound into yearly volumes. We are only three missing, 1946, 1953 and 1954, if they ever come to light we would be interested.”

A Newsquest spokesman said: “The Clacton office is no longer fit for purpose so the management of those titles will now be based in Colchester.

“However, reporters will continue to work remotely in the towns for those titles to ensure our readers are provided with the best possible news and information service.”