Some 150 years ago this year, the very first edition of the Sheerness Times Guardian was published, beginning a very special relationship with the people of Sheppey.

Publisher Thomas Rigg declared in its pages: "We are Islanders. To us the mainland is a foreign land. To such a society the affairs of a neighbouring country are as interesting as the local policy of Timbuctoo."

And so it was that the first Sheerness Guardian rolled off the Blue Town press. Priced at one penny, the broadsheet begged kind indulgence for any imperfections and promised every exertion would be made to make it as correct an organ of local information as possible in so confined a space.

He called it his "child" and asked it be accepted as honest and faithful with no goal in sight but the truth. Maybe it was idealistic for Mr Rigg to disclaim ideas of profit from a commercial undertaking, but repayment of outlay was all he wished.

What mattered most was that local news was contained within its pages.

But by "local" he accepted and stated: "Sheerness, unlike the neighbouring towns, has scarcely any aboriginal race. It is a colony of emigrants from all parts of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

"We live in a world of our own, and without selfishness, we may say this little world is large enough to hold all our endeavours for good to others, and offers a sphere of mutual usefulness where success is more probable than in the wider sphere which others have sought to cover and failed in their endeavour."

Although the paper undoubtedly did sell, it was shared between two or three families and many of the older generation could not read.

But many wanted to learn, and Dockyard men chose lessons over card playing during dinner breaks at a literary club and library.