Insights into Chester's Victorian past have been revealed through a new addition to university archives.

In 1886, when the University was the Chester Diocesan Training College, students first produced a magazine called 'The Collegian'.

Two issues dating from 1886 and the following year were long considered to be lost, until bookseller Dr Chris Robinson came into possession of them. Both texts have since been donated by the bookseller to Chester University's archive. 

Historians have also noted how the early issues of the magazine appeared in handwritten, rather than print format.

Print historian Dr Lisa Peters commented that manuscript periodicals were unusual in late Victorian times, as printing was widespread.

Not only would there have been many printers in Chester who could have typeset and printed a magazine, but many institutions had their own simple hand-operated printing press.

Therefore, its manuscript format suggests that the student editors did not have sufficient money to print 'The Collegian' at the start.   

Appearing fortnightly, as students and former students subscribed to the magazine, the editors were able to purchase a basic printing machine called a typograph.

It produced the issues for 1887, along with a specially printed cover printed by Chester printers Phillipson & Golder. The covers appear to have been purchased a batch as the date on each is handwritten, rather than set in type. 

The magazine contained College news, football reports, letters to the editor, reports of church services, poetry and a note from the editor, Fred Proctor, offering hour-long shorthand lessons in his room on Thursday afternoons.   

"This is an important discovery which fills a gap in our archives," said Professor Graeme White, Emeritus professor of local history at the university.

"In 1886 a new Principal was trying to modernise the College by encouraging a more relaxed approach to student life.

"The production of an in-house magazine was part of the process and it is wonderful to have the very earliest issues which were thought to be lost."  

The magazine changed its name to 'The Cestrian' in 2006, to acknowledge Chester becoming a university.

In February 1887, the editor wrote: "The history of this paper is very brief, dating only from the spring of last year, but as things are progressing, there is no reason why we should not expect to have a 'jubilee' of The Collegian."