IT'S Local Newspaper Week, celebrating the important role played by the press in the local community.

To celebrate, here is a trip down memory lane- we have opened the archives of the Dorset Echo to relive the biggest stories over the decades.

Today, we take a look at the events that shaped the news agenda in the 20s and 30s.

THE TWENTIES

THE Dorset Evening Echo was born when the "war to end wars" had just finished and the Roaring Twenties were just starting.

And, despite its sleepy image, Dorset proved then, as now, to be a magnet for news.

No coastal region is without its stories of tragedy at sea, but South Dorset may feel it has had more than its fair share.

Not all have been big disasters but there have been many chilling reminders of how cruel sea can be.

And in this rural county the lack of industry on the scale available elsewhere has presented a continuing problem.

Unemployment has not been so bad as in some other comparable parts of the country, but the theme, together with tragedy at sea, has been a dominant factor.

Within a year of its birth the Echo had reported its first General Election and the results were transmitted to a waiting public outside the newspaper offices.

The first of the Naval disasters came in 1923 when the submarine L24 was rammed by HMS Resolution while on fleet exercises off Portland. All on board were lost.

It was also the year of the first Royal visit recorded by the Echo when the Prince of Wales came to Dorchester to open the Territorial Barracks.

The Echo itself made headlines early in 1924 when it merged with its rival, the Dorset Daily Press, to become the only evening newspaper published in Weymouth.

Thomas Hardy, the Dorset novelist, was the subject of a front page story when he died in 1928.

In this year of mourning for one of Dorset's most famous sons, the people of Weymouth waited with apprehension for the outcome of a prophecy that the town would be destroyed by a tidal wave.

It was the hoax of the century. It never happened.

With millions unemployed in Britain the squeeze was experienced just as much here in Dorset as anywhere else, and nearly every day there were stories in the Echo about football matches played by the unemployed and functions organised to keep them and their families.

Even in the depression, however, Dorchester managed a smile and in 1929 celebrated its tercentenary.

In the same year Lulworth Castle was destroyed by fire.

THE THIRTIES

WEYMOUTH went into the 30s with a new Town Bridge - opened in 1930 by the Duke of York, later to become King George VI.

Britain captured the air speed record and won the Schneider Trophy outright in 1931, when former Weymouth Grammar School boy, Lieutenant George Stainforth broke the world three-kilometre speed record.

Memories of the L24 disaster were evoked in 1932 when a second submarine tragedy occurred in West Bay - the sinking of the seaplane-carrying M2 with the loss of all hands.

In and around Dorchester archaeologists were making new discoveries at Maiden Castle and Colliton Park in 1934.

Hitler became German dictator.

In 1936 year there was another sea incident off Portland. This time a liner, the 20,000 ton Winchester Castle ran aground on rocks with 338 passengers on board.

Later that year, King Edward VIII abdicated after a reign of 325 days and the Duke of York succeeded his brother as King George VI.

The following year the new King came to Portland to present drums to the Lincolnshire Regiment.

It was the last year of peace, and in 1939 came the first air-raid precaution conference for Dorset. At 11am on September 3, war was declared.

After a test of Weymouth and Dorchester's blackout precautions involving in July, 1939, the Echo ran a story headed - Too many lights on during blackout.

Later this month, as the war clouds continued to gather, Weymouth Town Council members were asking if the district would be a danger zone in war time.

The Reserve Fleet was called up and inspected by the King at Portland.

On August 31, the Echo reported that there were still 15,000 gas masks awaiting collection in Weymouth.

And the next day brought the news that 7,500 children were to be evacuated to Weymouth.

At 11am on September 3, war was declared.

Three days later Britain had its first enemy air-raid.