Madam Jethro ….. Gifted Clairvoyant … the 6ft Mahogany wardrobe … and “The Gladiator” Photo Works …… Chorlton in 1937

 It is often the seemingly trivial things people leave behind, which offer up fascinating insights into how we lived.

And so, it is with a copy of the Chorlton and Wilbrahamton News from the late 1930s which Maggie Watson passed over to me last night, with the comment,  “During our renovation we found a crumpled newspaper under a stair tread. I saved what I could. 

It was obviously put there at the time the house was built in 1937. Are these of any interest to you?”.

 Which of course I was. 

 Her house was built by Scott the builder, who built and lived in the house we now occupy on Beech Road.

 All of which made the newspaper a bit more interesting and more so because Maggie’s house had been the site of a farmhouse which dated back to the early 19^th century and possibly into the 18^th century.

 Discoveries like Maggie’s will usually confirm things we already knew, push back dates of buildings, and open up new enquiries.

 

So, the advert for the Grange Laundry on Beech Road “A Really Good Laundry”, pointed to the uninterrupted continuity of the business through the first half of the last century, while Thomas’s Coaches at 4 Chorlton Green pushed back the date when this new industry has a presence beside the old village green.

 And that brings me to Madam Jethro ….. Gifted Clairvoyant, who must surely be worth a search.   

 The entry in the small adds column announces “Madam Jethro, Gifted Clairvoyant .  Book your appointments please.  Hours 2 to 8pm.  Borderland every Thursday”,  but it offers no clues as to where she lived, leaving me just to reflect that with The Great War less than 20 years in the past there will have been many wondering whether  Madam Jethro could provide a link to a lost relative.

The adds also shine a light on the attitudes of the day, when a property owner could advertise “Large Unfurnished Room; Lady,- 16, High Lane, Chorlton” and the Riding’s Cycle company with a branch at 363 Barlow Moor Road, could take a quarter page advert showing pictures of eleven women with the caption “More Pretty Entrants in Riding’s Great Northern Cycle Queen Contest”.

 What strikes you are the number of adverts for electrical repair shops, along with such services as “Have your Car thoroughly cleaned and “Simonized” by competent man” and “Mrs. M. Craddy, ‘Spirella’ Corsetiere, Demonstrations in Client’s Own Home, by Appointment.  At home, Saturday, 10 to 6. – 2 Chelford Road, Darley Park, Manchester  16. Tel. Chorlton 3271”.

 

Sadly, the news and features pages were not retained by who ever secreted the bits that Maggie found and that is a loss, but there is more than enough to provide us with a picture of Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1937.

 I can’t be sure at present who secreted the bits of newspaper, but it is odds on it was one of Whitelegg family who were there in 1939.  Mr. Reginald Whitelegg  was born in 1884, his wife Millicent two years later and the children, George and Millicent were born in 1908 and 1919.

 Given that Reginald was a house painter and his son a bricklayer, it is just possible they worked for or worked with Joe Scott who built their house, and was known to reward employees and friends with favourable terms when renting out the houses he built.

And so tomorrow and into the next week I think I shall wander across the adverts, recording the cost of items, the names of some local shop keepers, along with a sideways look at the cinemas and the films being shown on the first week in July.

 Leaving me just to mention that Gladiator Photoworks, which operated from 2a Keppel Road and boldly claimed that “Better Snaps Cost No More Bring Your Films Where Your Snapshots Are Actually Made It costs no more to have your snaps finished by Professional Photographers Snapshot Specialists".

 Location; Chorlton

 Pictures; from The Chorlton and Wilbrahamton News, July 16, 1937, from the collection of Maggie Watson