The Tamworth Herald was founded as a weekly broadsheet in 1868 by Yorkshire-born newsagent, bookseller and stationer, Daniel Addison. The original offices were based in Silver Street, Tamworth and the paper was run from these premises until 1965.

In 1877, Addison retired from the newspaper business and a group of influential public figures in Tamworth assumed ownership of the paper, forming the Tamworth Herald Company Limited. They also purchased Addison’s book-selling, stationary and newsagents business, which was run from the ground floor shop.

They included three times Mayor, William Tempest, whose death in 1911 prompted a black bordered glowing tribute to his life and work in the Tamworth Herald on August 12, by long-serving editor, manager and secretary to the company, Ayrshire-born William Morton. Morton made reference to Tempest’s “ unwearying interest in the paper and his efforts to make it a journal worthy of the locality”.