The Rasen Mail

The first speaker at West Wolds U3A for 2024 was Diane Tuckett who has worked for The Rasen Mail since 1998. She gave a comprehensive history of the newspaper which released its first edition in 1856. The paper was founded by Walesby farmer Richard Hackett, who was also a printer, engraver and bookseller. Priced at one penny, the newspaper became a weekly source of information which included local news and stories, agricultural facts and figures as well as national and international news, serialised books and handy hints all mixed in with a gamut of adverts placed by local traders. In the days before TV and radio, the Rasen Mail soon became a very important source of information and entertainment.

This format sustained the Rasen Mail for many years despite it changing ownership several times and its eventual merging with the Horncastle News and Louth Leader whilst under the ownership of Teddy Sharpe.

Charles Edward (Teddy) Sharpe started out as a typesetter at the Mail; over time, he became a freelance reporter and, in 1947, he bought the paper from the then owners Whittingham & Baty Ltd. Although he was not technically minded, Teddy acknowledged the need for mechanised typesetting to be introduced and set out to modernise the Mail’s production equipment.

Ten years later, and Teddy had bought the Horncastle based publishing company of W K Morton & Sons; this acquisition enabled the printing of all the local newspapers to be undertaken in Horncastle. In 2001, the Morton newspapers were bought by East Midlands Newspapers who are a branch of the nationwide newspaper giants Johnston Press. The new owners have maintained the editorial office of the Rasen Mail in Horncastle and are now taking it into the digital age and, although its print readership is in decline, people are still driven to buy the Rasen Mail because it remains an important source of hyper-local community news and events.