1851
Seventy years at Linney
With the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations taking place in early June, we take a trip down Memory Lane
On 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth at the age of 25. But, what was life for Linney like at that time?
Two years of food rationing was still ahead for British society, and the rationing of paper was no exception.
In 1952, paper was central to our business, and we were about to embark on momentous change.
Birth of The Chad
The Linney family owned a newspaper called the Mansfield and North Notts Advertiser, a stationery, books and fancy goods shop and a printing works, all in Mansfield.
The nearby Willman family owned The Mansfield Chronicle and a printing works, both in Mansfield.
Ian Linney (fourth generation of the family) liked shops and printing – but not newspapers. David Greenslade (of the Willman family) liked newspapers – but not printing or shops.
The two businesses would soon merge, leading to the birth of Mansfield’s local paper, The Chad, taking the ‘Ch’ from Chronicle and ‘Ad’ from Advertiser.
The growth of the Chad was phenomenal. It would become Britain’s second biggest-selling weekly newspaper at just under 50,000 copies a week.
Looking back
Meanwhile, Ian Linney set about building up our retail businesses and changing the printing works into the forerunner of what we are today.
In 1952, we employed 35 people and boasted annual sales figures of just over £50,000.
Nick Linney remembers his father Ian explaining that there was great celebration when the newspaper business bought its first post-war van for distributing newspapers… from Manchester. Remarkably, this was the nearest van that was available for sale.
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