ONE hundred and ten years ago this week your favourite evening newspaper first hit the streets of Lancashire.

During the 11 decades the "must you can trust" has gone from strength to strength. There have been many changes but the newspaper has never forgotten its mission to report on and represent the local community.

New technology has revolutionised the way the paper reaches the news stands. Gone are the day of hot metal - nowadays the stories are sent to be printed electronically using the latest computer equipment.

It all started when Thomas Purvis Ritzema, a young newspaper manager from Middlesbrough, tried to buy a copy of an evening paper during a visit to Lancashire.

Amazed to find there was no such thing he launched the Northern Daily Telegraph, the forerunner of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. The first issue was on the streets in Blackburn on October 26, 1986. It carried a mixture of foreign and local news and was published from two former shops at 19 and 21 Railway Road.

Within eight years Mr Ritzema had moved his operation a few yards up the road to a purpose-built plant and offices on the corner of Railway Road and High Street.

He died aged 85 in March 1938 and seven years later his family sold the newspaper to the old Kemsley Group. By 1959, when it was taken over by Thomson Regional Newspapers, the newspaper was known as the Evening Telegraph and added Lancashire to its title in September 1963.

Reed Regional Newspapers were the next owners. They acquired the newspaper in October 1991 and the next year the Evening Telegraph adopted a new-look tabloid style.

The latest change in ownership took place late last year when the board of Reed Regional Newspapers bought out the company, which is now known as the Newsquest Media Group.

Triumph and tragedy, celebration and sadness have been reflected in the day to day reporting of the events which make news, and this continues throughout East Lancashire and worldwide.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.