Daily newspaper archives dating back 150 years have been made available online by a regional publisher.

Archant’s Local Recall project has now gone live after the company oversaw the digitisation of Eastern Daily Press archives from as far back as 1870.

Millions of articles from the EDP’s print archives can now be searched online as a result of the project, which has been funded by the Google Digital News Innovation.

The archive is fully integrated with smart speakers such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home, and can be accessed for £5.99 a month.

Users can express commands such as “What happened today in 1934?”, “Tell me the headlines on the Queen’s coronation,” and “Read me an article about the moon landing” to search the archives and find out what happened on a given day and year, during well-known local events or in specific areas.

Lorna Willis, chief client officer of Archant said: “The Local Recall project is a fantastic example of how through the innovative use of technology, a whole world of local history from the EDP archives can become available for all to enjoy.

“We are extremely pleased that this special content is now available not just to read but also to hear and question through world leading chat bot technology.”