Stamford Mercury Archive Trust and Bourne's Golding Young and Mawer featured on BBC's Bargain Hunt today

The Stamford Mercury Archive Trust featured on BBC One's Bargain Hunt today (Monday, January 21).

The show followed two teams, led by experts Mark Stacey and Gary Pe, who had £300 to spend on three times in the hope of making a profit at auction.

Filmed in Stamford at the end of August, The Meadows and Stamford High Street feature prominently in the opening scenes. Field Dog Fairs had one of its antiques fairs running on The Meadows at the time.

The show's host Natasha Raskin Sharp also visits the Stamford Mercury Archive Trust, based at Cherryholt Road in Stamford where the newspaper's advertising and editorial teams are based. There she meets the archive trust's secretary Sarah Critchard, who shows her a copy of the first edition held in the archive from 1714. Sarah explains the paper cost three and a half pence so would mainly have been bought by upper and middle class people.

Natasha goes on to outline the content - describing it as "not dissimilar to today's press" - and explains how newspaper tax forced the size of the newspaper to change to a broadsheet format. Sarah shows Natasha an article on a man who sold his wife for four shillings in the 19th century.

Later on in the episode, the auction takes place at Golding Young and Mawer in Bourne, where Colin Young appears to discuss the items the teams have bought before they go under the hammer.

To watch the 44-minute long episode click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0c147rb/bargain-hunt-series-52-3-stamford-meadows-5

To find out more about the Stamford Mercury Archive Trust click here