Whenever anything important took place in Bristol, the city's reporters and photographers were usually among the first on the scene.

Journalism is often said to be "the first draft of history", and this applies just as much to local news as major world events. The words and pictures in the papers shape our ideas and can sometimes shape the feelings of the whole community.

So when, for example, on November 27 2003, the day after Concorde 216 made her final journey home to Filton, the local and national press published a news agency photo of the aircraft over the Suspension Bridge, it quickly became a hugely popular emblem of the city's pride in its achievements.

Local press front pages weren't always so memorable. In the 19th century, the front pages were usually covered in advertisements. If they had any pictures at all, they were usually just block-prints of little drawings or cartoons. Even huge civic events, such as visits from Royalty, might merit several columns of type, but no photos.

Things only changed with the invention of the halftone process - which turns photos to a series of tiny dots - in the late 1800s. Even then, the equipment needed to print pictures was expensive, and Bristol's press didn't regularly feature photos until the early 20th century. Full-colour printing in newspapers is a relatively recent innovation, as you'll see from the other front pages in this section.

The technological difference between, say, the Bristol Evening World of the 1950s and the Evening Post of today is the same as the difference between a manual typewriter and a state-of-the-art computer.