The first issue of The Nottinghamshire Guardian , and Midland and Counties Advertiser appeared on 1 May 1846, and this title was retained until publication ceased in December 1969. In its early years, the paper printed under its banner title a long quotation of Lord George Bentinck, a leading opponent in the 1840s of the free trade policy of Sir Robert Peel. In allying itself with the defence of agricultural, commercial and colonial interests, The Nottinghamshire Guardian proclaimed its Conservative orientation. Issue no. 310 was published on Thursday 11 March 1852 by Thomas Forman. The price was 4 1/2 d, with eight pages of six columns per page. Printed in the top left hand corner of the front page was: "The circulation...was during the year 1851, 112,000 [copies]." Page seven of this issue shows a one penny tax stamp.

The Forman family continued its ownership of the newspaper after Thomas Forman died in 1888. Two of his sons, John Thomas Forman and Jesse Robert Forman, became active in the management of the newspaper from the 1870s. Jesse Robert was prominent in the Press Association, being elected chairman in 1889. He became vice-president of the Newspaper Society in 1891. With his early death at the age of forty-two in 1892, his brother John Thomas continued the management and ownership of the paper, and on his death in 1916 his son, Thomas Bailey Forman, took over the running of the newspaper.

The price of issue no. 1513 of 30 April 1875, was 2d, unstamped, and this included a four page Supplement. By this time, cricket reporting was included within the "Sporting Intelligence" section. In 1882, circulation of the paper was given in Hubbard as 8,000 copies. At the end of the century, the eight page issue no. 2789 of Saturday 5 November 1898, was priced 1d. Page two includes Ladies Fashions--including some illustrations. Page six has excerpts from two novels— Patience of Christopher by Cressandia; and A Quiet Lodger by Dorothea Gerard. French news is covered by two stories on page eight: "France and Fashoda" and "The Dreyfus Affair".