I want to know what happened in 1897 in Dinas.

It was Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Year and the year that Hannah Jane George died of typhoid  but the whole year is missing from the archived back copies of our local paper. How can that be? What happened in that year to suspend publication of the County Echo or to divert the back copies from their destined place in the British Library, where you can find all the years from 1894 – 1950 but where the sixth column of the catalogue shows that 1897 is missing.

The County Echo, Fishguard and North Pembs Advertiser, was founded in August 1893. Its first editor and owner was Levi Evans and the four page broad sheet, with a front page full of advertising, declared itself to be ‘Independent – religiously and politically’. It was priced at one penny and was published every Thursday from offices in Fishguard. Levi Evans continued in charge until 1926. His sons, Bryn, Llwyd, Austin and Yorrie, then took over the running of the newspaper, with Bryn Evans as editor.

The nearest I have got to 1897 was on  Welsh Newspapers Online  which claims to have a copy published on 7th January 1897. But when I looked closely at the top of this torn sheet I saw that the date read 7th January 1896. Such disappointment!

But this advertisement for a 19th century version of the morning-after pill did catch my interest.