When you get two for one ….. the ghost sign with history

I wonder how many people in Northwich remember this ghost sign when it properly did the business of advertising Bristol cigarettes.

They were one of the products made by W.D.& H.O. Wills which my Wikipedia tells me “was a British tobacco manufacturing company formed in Bristol, England. It was the first British company to mass-produce cigarettes, and one of the founding companies of Imperial Tobacco along with John Player & Sons.

The company was founded in 1786 and went by various names before 1830 when it became "W.D. & H.O. Wills". Tobacco was processed and sold under several brand names, some of which were still used by Imperial Tobacco until the second half of the 20th century. 

The company pioneered the use of cigarette cards within their packaging. Many of the buildings in Bristol and other cities around the United Kingdom still exist with several being converted to residential use”.*

I am too young to remember “fag cards” but was an avid collector of those which came with packets of tea.  These cards carried on the tradition and like their cigarette counterparts, found their way into albums specially produced to hold them and covered a range of topics from butterflies to steam locomotives, war and sporting “heroes” and much more.

And in a homage to cigarette cards, my tea ones were also called “fag cards” and as well as ending up in albums, were traded in the playground.

Along with that game which involved placing two cards propped up against the wall and attempting to knock them down by flicking more cards at them. The winner was the one that dislodged his propped up card and to him/her went all of the discarded cards used in failed attempts to bring one of the two down.

Needless to say many of the winning hoard were grubby, dog eared and battered.

So, back to the ghost sign which seems to show at least two signs and the name, Robert Cheatoe & Sons which I guess may be the name of the distributor or the owners of the tobacconists, who sold Bristol cigarettes.

I wish I had access to the street and trade directories for Witton Street in Northwich where our ghost sign adorns a gable end, but I don’t and that makes it difficult to locate Robert Cheatoe & Sons and determine if the gable end belonged to them.

As for a date or a series of dates for our sign that is also vague.  I know that Bristol cigarettes were manufactured from 1871 to 1974 which gives us quite a margin of time to play with.

All of which leaves with hoping that someone will remember the ghost sign and perhaps provide answers to when it was painted, if it was hidden by a later adverting hoarding and just who and where were the firm Robert Cheatoe & Sons.

We shall see.

And for those still intrigued by ghost signs, they were painted adverts for a product or business, many of which no longer exist, and appeared on walls and even roves.

Some were later covered up by hoardings and others painted over, but occasionally they resurface as a reminder of lost products. look closely at our sign and you can just see the iron fittings which may have supported a hoarding.

Location; Northwich

Pictures; the Northwich ghost sign, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*W.D. & H.O. Wills, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.D._%26_H.O._Wills#:~:text=The%20firm's%20first%20brand%20was,relaunched%20in%201962%20with%20coupons.