THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Founded in 1846 by Hildred Thorsby, the Fryup Pioneer is one of the oldest newspapers in Britain.  Owned by generations of the Thorsby family, it has a checkered political history, having enthusiastically backed the Nazis prior to the Second World War, and consistently advocated the return of the death penalty.  However it has proven less hardline on other moral issues, introducing topless models to its pages in 1984, culminating in the crowning of an annual ‘Pioneer Girl’.