The Monmouthshire Beacon is a weekly tabloid covering Monmouthshire, southern Herefordshire, and western Gloucestershire. Its original title in full was the Monmouthshire Beacon, Forest of Dean Gazette and General Advertiser for Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and South Wales, which you can see in the header of many issues of the paper.

In addition to covering local news, the newspaper also spent column space covering stories of national importance. This included news pertaining to the First World War. You can follow the developments of the war in the pages of the Monmouthshire Beacon such as the details of the Italian campaign and the renewed Austrian attacks in 1916.

You can also find mention of important Welsh historical figures such as Benjamin Hall. Hall was the first Baron of Llanover and is supposedly the Ben that Big Ben is named after. Additionally, Hall was a Welsh civil engineer, an MP for Monmouth, and a Sheriff of Monmouthshire. You can find his daughter’s marriage announcement in the 14 November 1846 issue:

‘On Thursday, the 12th instant, at Llanarth chapel according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, by the Right Rev. Dr. Brown, Bishop of South Wales: and afterwards at the parish church of Llanover, by the Right Rev. the Bishop of Saint David’s, John Arthur Jones, Esq. eldest son of John Jones, Esq., and the Lady Harriet Jones, of Llanarth Court, […] to Augusta Charlotte Elizabeth, only child of Sir Benjamin Hall, Bar. Of Llanover Court…’

The inaugural issue of the Monmouthshire Beacon was published on 14 October 1837, and it is still published today.