''The Westmorland Gazette'' is a weekly newspaper published in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, England, covering "

South Lakeland South Lakeland is a local government district in Cumbria, England. The population of the non-metropolitan district was 102,301 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 103,658 at the 2011 Census. Its council is based in Kendal. It includes ...

and surrounding areas", including Barrow and North Lancashire. Its name refers to the historic county of

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

. The paper is now owned by the

Newsquest Newsquest Media Group Ltd. is the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom. It is owned by the American mass media holding company Gannett. It has 205 brands across the UK, publishing online and in print ...

group, forming part of Westmorland Gazette Newspapers, which includes the weekly freesheet ''South Lakes Citizen'' and other titles. It has an office in Ulverston in addition to its Kendal base. The circulation is about 7,500. It changed from

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

to compact format in August 2009. The editor, Vanessa Sims, also edits Cumbrian titles the ''Mail'', the News & Star, The Cumberland News, the '' Whitehaven News'', and the Times & Star.

History

The newspaper was founded on May 23, 1818. Among its early editors was Thomas De Quincey, who was in post from July 1818 until his resignation in November 1819. Under his editorship, the newspaper covered topics such as contemporary philosophy. It has been suggested that De Quincey's interests were too esoteric for the readership of the ''Gazette'', but the main reason for his departure seems to have been doubt about his reliability. He was living at Dove Cottage, some miles away from Kendal. A drug addict, De Quincey used to take

laudanum Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum Linnaeus'') in alcohol (ethanol). Red ...

there, as he recalled in his autobiographical work '' Confessions of an English Opium-Eater''.The proprietors complained in July 1819 of "their dissatisfaction with the lack of 'regular communication between the Editor and the Printer'". Online edition available by subscription. William Wordsworth wrote many letters for publication in the paper, and had been invited to be its editor; other notable correspondents included John Ruskin and Beatrix Potter. From 1963 the newspaper was the publisher of Alfred Wainwright's books '' A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells''. The series was taken over by Michael Joseph after the author's death. In 2007 '' The Times'' reported that a minor news story in the ''Westmorland Gazette'', describing the fire brigade's attendance to extinguish a burning chair, had received much commentary. The editor, Mike Glover, was quoted as saying: "This is not the most crime-ridden or busiest of areas, and it's difficult to get much material from calls to the police and fire brigade. We took attitude that local news sells local newspapers. People will have wondered what the fire brigade were doing."

References

External links

Westmorland Gazette website
Newspapers published in Cumbria Publications established in 1818 Westmorland Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom {{England-newspaper-stub