Tag: 1930s

1900-1949 Ephemera

The Joys of the British Newspaper Archive

Post author By Estelle
Post date January 20, 2015
2 Comments on The Joys of the British Newspaper Archive

Happiness (for me) is a browse through what is probably my favourite online resource – the British Newspaper Archive. It’s here.

I thought I’d mention it now because it’s a subscription-based site, and there’s a discount code valid until the end of January 2015 – enter “news01” and you get a month’s unlimited browsing for just £1.

Here’s a little article I found, local to me as it’s from The Liverpool Post in 1937 (and I am all about 1937 right now). It’s what initially seems to be a fairly modern scenario, in a way. A pupil from Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, sued his teacher for caning him, and he won his case. Then everyone remembered they were still in 1937, his teacher appealed, and she was successful in getting the conviction overturned.

You’re left in no doubt as to what general opinion might be, reading the language of the article:

“On the afternoon of January 12th, she warned him several times. When she went to cane him in the ordinary way, he turned away and she hit him with the cane three times on his pants. She did not lose her temper. The boy went back to his desk and sat down, doing his work much better afterwards.

Mr Roland Thomas, K.C., for the teacher, commented, “Teachers will go in terror of punishing children, if bruising of the ordinary kind is going to be taken as excessive.”

Tags 1930s, 1937, Birkenhead, childhood, children, ephemera, Liverpool, The British Newspaper Archive, The Liverpool Post

1900-1949 Adverts Ephemera

Skin Constipation, 1937

Post author By Estelle
Post date January 18, 2015

I have a feeling things are going to get a bit 1937-y around here for a while as my latest Ebay ephemera purchase is an edition of the Mirror from May 1937. It’s not the usual daily newspaper, though, but the overseas weekly edition compiled from a week’s worth of newspapers. The date is quite portentous as it’s the week before George VI’s coronation, and there’s a huge sense of build up and excitement, with special adverts recommending food to eat whole you’re waiting for the procession to pass, endless details about visitors from other parts of the world arriving to take part in all the pageantry, and romantic asides with pictures of the recently abdicated Edward and Wallace Simpson smiling at each other.

And that’s apart from the amazing news stories and general adverts, which are reliably fascinating. One thing I have learned from the adverts I have from the 1930s and 40s – you’re never far away from a laxative ad. Not sure why this was such a huge deal at this time – I imagined everyone was eating quite a lot of vegetable matter at this point. In fact, I’ve previously written about my favourite advert ever, a laxative advert in my Grandad’s 1940 copy of the Radio Times (he was on the cover) – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/remembrance-week-the-radio-times-1940/

So, how to capitalise on this apparent fear of constipation if you didn’t actually manufacture laxatives? Wright’s Coal Tar Soap decided to basically invent a new problem -“Skin constipation”, a kind of poisoning from your blocked pores. Luckily, this terrible affliction could be avoided with their soap, of course.

Tags 1930s, 1937, advert, George VI, Grandad, Liverpool, pharmaceuticals, The Mirror, The Radio Times

1900-1949

Ferry Cross the Mersey, 1932

Post author By Estelle
Post date December 12, 2014

A bit more from Motor Runs from Merseyside – published by the Liverpool Post in 1932 to capitalise on people starting to become car owners, with advice on places accessible within one or two days from Liverpool.

I found this section, with information on the tolls of the Mersey Ferries, fascinating. There’s a lot of measurements of vehicles involved – I wonder if they got a measuring stick out to check if your chassis was 12 feet or under. Sorry for the wobbly scanning, the old book just couldn’t take much bending.

I like the little map – you’d think nothing much has changed in 80 years looking at it. Except my adopted district, Norris Green, is yet to make it on the maps, being a newly built estate around this time. The library here is still in the 1930s Art Deco original building.

I have become slightly obsessed with charabancs since reading this, and having to look them up to see exactly what they were. An open-topped cross between a car and a bus, jammed full of people on a day trip, only safe because they went around 12 miles an hour by the looks of it.

Here’s a nice pic of Liverpool FC, in the 1920s, on their way to a match.

Tags 1930s, 1932, charabancs, Liverpool, Liverpool Daily Post, Mersey Ferry, Motor Runs from Merseyside

1900-1949 Adverts Food & Drink

Mel-O-Ade Cubed Drink, 1932

Post author By Estelle
Post date November 22, 2014

Here’s a 1932 book produced by the Liverpool Daily Post, “Motor runs from Merseyside”. It’s in a fairly delicate condition and so I couldnt quite scan everything flat. I’ll post up some more of this book later. For now, here’s some of the adverts it contains.

My favourite bit is this advert for Mel-O-Ade, a “Summer health drink”, “in convenient cubes for motorists”. Mel-O-Ade was a locally produced drink, made in Dale Street, Liverpool.

Buy a book now and then, and refresh your mind! A great phrase from an advert from the stationer and bookseller Philip Son and Nephew, Ltd on Church Street.

Adverts for where to buy cars in Liverpool. I just love that 1930s Art Deco aesthetic.

Motor Runs from Merseyside, Liverpool Daily Post, 1932

Tags 1930s, 1932, Adverts, Liverpool, Liverpool Daily Post, Motor Runs from Merseyside

1900-1949 Food & Drink

How to Make Tea, 1930

Post author By Estelle
Post date October 20, 2014

So, is this instruction, from “The Essex Cookery Book”, the definitive way to make tea? With tea leaves, of course, old chap.

It seems so simple and yet, if you’re British, getting it right is so bloody important. Otherwise, you’re in the realms of Arthur Dent’s nightmare:

Tags 1930s, cook book, Tea, The Essex Cookery Book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Vintage recipes

1900-1949 Food & Drink

How to Cook Vegetables, 1930

Post author By Estelle
Post date October 9, 2014

Some possibly useful information on how to cook vegetables from The Essex Cookery Book, 1930.

I’ve never heard of the dark/light theory of cooking vegetables. Vegetables grown in the dark should be cooked in the dark (i.e. covered with a lid) and vice versa, or so it says.

More carrot destruction here with the timings. Not quite as bad as the advice to cook them for two and a half hours from 1910 (see below) but people apparently really liked carrot mush back then. Also – in what universe does it take 15 minutes to cook spinach? You can see why we got our reputation for soggy veg.

Previous post here on Mrs Rea’s Cookery Book from 1910 – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/the-good-the-bad-and-the-calfs-head/

Tags 1930s, cook book, food, Mrs Dora Rea's Cookery Book, The Essex Cookery Book, vegetables, Vintage recipes

1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Head Slap, 1935

Post author By Estelle
Post date June 20, 2014

Head Slap, Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts

A fairly self-explanatory game of how to box your opponents ears here, although it’s not as easy as it sounds. I love the Janet and John style illustration.

From The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935 (Sid G. Hedges).

Tags 1930s, 1935, Friday fun, Games, the universal book of hobbies and handicrafts

1900-1949 Food & Drink

Vintage recipes – Mr Sutton’s Gin-blind, 1938

Post author By Estelle
Post date June 8, 2014

Groo.

In honour of my 40th birthday celebrations last night, I offer the cocktail and the cure, both from the 1938 edition of The Weekend Book.

Mr Sutton’s Gin-blind (“to be drunk with discretion”) is, I imagine, a kind of pre-war Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

To be followed by this massively hardcore hangover cure, that sounds like something an alchemist might brew up in a cauldron. I think I’ll stick with tea and toast.

Tags 1930s, 1938, cocktails, hangover cure, The Weekend Book, Vintage recipes

1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Up Jenkyns! 1938

Post author By Estelle
Post date June 6, 2014
2 Comments on Friday Fun – Up Jenkyns! 1938

It’s Friday and it’s time for some Skittish fun, courtesy of The Weekend Book. This is a book right up my street, full of all manner of games and instruction, written in 1924 but updated regularly up until around 1955. It takes itself not seriously at all, the book equivalent of some bright young things skittering around at a pre-war house party.

Just look at this gorgeous cover –

Today I give you “Up Jenkyns!” A game my grandad taught me and my brother, and is forever associated for me with a piece of cherry cake and a cup of tea. (Although I imagined it being spelt “Up Jenkins”). This was such a popular game that you’ll notice it doesn’t even bother explaining how you play it. So, for the uninitiated, you need two teams of at least two people on each side and a table. The teams sit either side of the table with one side hiding a sixpence (a new 5p is perfect) in one of their hands secretly under the table. Once hidden, the team then puts their fists on the table while the other team has to guess which hand holds the coin, with all the additions mentioned below.

Tags 1930s, 1938, Friday fun, Games, The Weekend Book, up Jenkins, Up Jenkyns

1900-1949

Self Defence, 1935

Hello! I’m so excited about getting going that it’s hard to know where to start. But, on reflection, it can really only be with my 1935 copy of The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, which was the first old book I ever bought and has been entertaining me ever since. I love these compendium books of knowledge, with tips on how to do pretty much everything, from the days when proper hobbies were a really big deal. I have collected a few of them now, but this is my favourite.

Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts 1935

It’s full of genuinely useful information, although I’m not convinced the complicated pages of dance steps ever taught anyone to successfully dance the tango. But should you want to learn how to sing, how to identify birdsong or how to drown kittens, it’s all here.

I’m going to show you the Self Defence chapter, as Mr Chomondley-Warner would have practiced it. Rum chaps in flat caps assaulting their Oxford-bagged betters. It’s pretty much tips on how to get arrested now, if you ever put a lot of this stuff into practice. Piercing an assailants throat with your umbrella tip? The nose grip could be a useful move though.

Is it slightly sinister that “frog-marching is familiar to most people from school days”? Very Ripping Yarns.