The ''Kentish Express'' is a weekly newspaper serving southern
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. It is published in four editions -
Ashford,
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...
,
Hythe and
Romney Marsh, and
Tenterden. The title is owned by the
KM Group and published on Thursdays.
History
The ''Kentish Express'' was founded in 1855 as the ''Ashford and Alfred News'' by Henry Igglesden. The first edition was published on 14 July 1855.
The paper was Kent's first penny paper after the abolition of stamp duty on newspapers in 1854. Three years later, the paper was renamed the ''Kentish Express & Ashford News''.
Henry's son Charles Igglesden (1861-1949) took over as editor at 23 years of age, after attending the
Paris Conservatoire and a period as a reporter. He remained in post for a further 64 years and was
knighted in 1928.
Charles Igglesden represented Kent at
lawn tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
; Ashford at
rugby and
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
; beat
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at
billiards, and was a lifelong friend of
W G Grace.
His “A Saunter through Kent with Pen and Pencil” newspaper articles, describing 242 Kent villages, were republished as 34 books.
In January 1916, Igglesden was one of the first journalists invited to report from the
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
trenches by
Lord Kitchener.
The KM Group bought the ''Express'' in 1971. It also purchased the ''Folkestone Express'', which was renamed the ''Kentish Express'' (Folkestone) in 2008.
Along with the rest of the KM-owned papers, the ''Express'' was given a design overhaul in May 2005.
Offices
All four editions of the ''Kentish Express'' are based at the KM Group's Ashford offices. The Folkestone and Hythe editions were based at the Folkestone offices until April 2009, when the offices were closed.
Circulation
The combined circulation of the four papers in the first half of 2009 was 18,664,
a drop of 12.4% against the same period in 2008.
References
External links
''Kentish Express'' homepage
{{Folkestone
KM Group newspapers
Newspapers published in Kent
Newspapers established in 1855
Borough of Ashford
Folkestone and Hythe District
Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom
1855 establishments in England