Did you know?
There are over 100,000 genuine historical
artefacts ranging from the Victoria era to the
1970s on display at Yesterday's World in Battle? |
Here are just some of the displays to look out for on your visit.
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A 1930’s grocer’s is on display in the High Street. Its shelves are lined with a plethora of packaged goods, including many famous brand names, such as
Oxo, Colman’s mustard and Spiller’s flour, that are still around today.
Less well-known products are
Wincarnis Beef Cubes, Foster Clarke's Strawberry Custard, and
Mason's Botanic Beer. Remember, too, the loose biscuits in glass-lidded
tins, with broken biscuits being sold for a fraction of the normal price.
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Post Office |
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The village post office was often incorporated into the general store to supplement the shop keeper’s income. In the days before phone boxes (and a long time before mobile phones!), people made telephone calls from here to the local exchange, where the operator put their calls through for them.
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Allwork's Store |
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The oldest general store at Yesterday's World dates from the late 19th century before
pre-packaging was introduced, when all goods (including coffee, tea, treacle and tobacco) were weighed out by hand.
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| Jeweller |
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Amongst the jewellery on display in the jeweller’s window are
Victorian mourning brooches, which were fashionable during the time of Prince Albert’s death – jet being the most popular material.
Other items to spot include the
Georgian patch box with its stick-on beauty spot, and a leaf-patterned box containing a
2s. 6d. pocket watch.
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Mrs Bumble's
Chocolate Shop |
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 The confectionery shop,
with its delicious aroma, is filled with
traditional sweets and packaging as it would have been sold in the
1920s.
Gobstoppers, liquorice root, giant humbugs, barley twists and other colourful
candies could be bought for half a penny in a paper twist.
If these whet your appetite, don’t forget a visit to our
traditional Victorian Sweet Shop where you can choose from a wide range
of traditional sweets, home made fudge, jams and marmalades.
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1930's Wireless Shop |
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The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) first started regular broadcasts in 1922, from the Marconi 2LO transmitter in London. In the
1930’s wireless shop a vast selection of valves, radios, batteries and light bulbs from the period is on display.
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The Chemist
Shop |
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The Victorians were obsessed with pills and potions to ease every ache and pain. Within the shop the
apothecary mixed his own medicines, using a pestle and mortar for grinding down the powders.
The stock from this display comes from a genuine
apothecary’s store in Hastings, which had been boarded up since the turn of the century.
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Doll & Toy Shop |
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 German manufacturers had a monopoly on china dolls, many of which were modelled on real children and became very popular before the
First World War. They sold for 2s.6d.each which was a young man's weekly wage then.
Toy bears had been made in Germany since the 1840's; they were always stiff, sawdust-stuffed animals, until 1902 when Steiff introduced a softer fur covered bear. The name, Teddy, was attached to it, after a cartoon appeared of
Teddy Roosevelt, the American President, taking home a baby bear as a pet, after one of his hunting trips.
The doll and toy shop contains many fine examples of both boys' and girls' toys spanning over a hundred years.
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Cobblers |
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The stock for this shop came from a cobbler’s in Burwash, Sussex, which was run by a Walter Wood since 1923. It is typical of a small boot and repair shop, set up to cater for the needs of the local community during the days when people owned a limited number of shoes.
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Lace Maker |
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At a time when specialist shops were the norm, people visited the lace maker to purchase anything from a handkerchief to a frilly pair of bloomers. Lace making was a very intricate art, often carried out in dim candlelight and extreme cold.
Most of the lace in this display was worn by a Miss Marsh, who for many years was Governess to the Queen of Holland.
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Pawnbroker |
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Pawnbrokers were sometimes the only places the working class could get loans in
the early part of the 20th century. Personal clothes and bed linen were among
the items most commonly used as security against a small loan. The contract was
called a ‘pledge.’
As many as 2000 pledges might be made on the Monday
morning; sheets would still be damp from washing, and Sunday best shoes and
clothes would come in, and go out again on Friday, to use the following
weekend.
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Ironmongers |
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ironmonger held a vast range of goods for the householder, the tradesman
and, in rural areas, the farmer. Larger establishments often had their own
foundry, which carried out repair works as well as manufacturing their own
pieces. Our shop represents the smaller type of establishment, where every inch
of space was taken up with some item of stock.
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| Victorian Kitchen |
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 With the Industrial Revolution a host of labour saving gadgets for the home,
such as mincers, egg whisks, scales and copper skimmers, became available for
the first time.
All of these and more are on display in the Victorian kitchen
where two maids can be seen busily preparing dinner.
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Laundry |
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There were no washing machines or tumble dryers in the days of the Victorian
laundry. Ironing was an arduous task with the use of very heavy smoothing irons
that were heated by charcoal or iron slugs.
Before vacuum cleaners were
invented, carpets had to be thrown over the washing line in the back yard and
beaten with a cane bat. Such was the hard work endured by women folk!
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Nanny's Room |
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 In the
Victorian period the children of middle class parents would have been looked after by a nanny. In this display the nanny can be seen preparing for bed, after curling her hair with rags and checking that the baby is sleeping soundly.
She has been promised a rare weekend off, and has been packing her tin trunk in readiness. She will get up early about 5.30 a.m. as usual, and wash in cold water in the china basin on the washstand.
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| Children's Playroom |
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Hundreds of toys from the Victorian era can be seen in the children’s playroom
where Nanny would keep the children ‘seen and not heard’ with playthings such as dolls houses, writing slates and picture scrapbooks.
In the bedroom there is a beautiful laced cradle,
which was found in a cottage attic in Hastings, and was used when the elderly owner was a baby in 1905.
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J Bull Tea & Coffee
Purveyors (Late Victorian 1890s) |
Selling
high class mineral waters, and purveyors of tea, coffee, cocoa and
confections. Notice the extra large tins for dispensing loose tea,
originally a very expensive commodity, which reduced in price considerably with
the advent of packaging and cheaper transport costs. In addition, this
shop sells confectionery, and dispenses hot drinks, Oxo and
Bovril, from brass and copper heaters produced in the shape of a castellated
tower and also a lighthouse.
Ginger beer was sold in stone
bottles and mineral waters in marble-stoppered glass bottles called Cod
bottles, hence the word ‘Codswallop’ crept into our language. Drinks
companies also used ‘torpedo’ shaped bottles, known as ‘Hamiltons’ which
could only be laid down on their side, thus preventing the cork drying out and
leakage of the contents.
On the shelves, you will see familiar
names such as Cadbury’s and Frys, and lesser known products which
have disappeared from our lives, such as Rova Cocoa and Mazawattee Tea.
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Francis Drapers &
Outfitters (Edwardian 1901-1911) |
Lady
Rymer has called at the shop with a list of garments made to her usual style;
chemises trimmed with broiderie anglais, muslin combinations
with lace and ribbons and two striped cotton petticoats with flounces
around the hem, to be delivered to the Manor when ready. She has asked for a
seamstress to call on her to take measurements for a new taffeta ball
gown with petticoat to match. Whilst in the store, she wishes to examine
the choice of back-laced corsets, as her maid managed to break the last
one, in her eagerness to give her ladyship an 18” waist.
Personal service was the order of the day and the comfort of
the customer was paramount, thus the provision of a chair at the front of the
counter. Plenty of time was given to the customer’s needs and various
accessories, such as hats, gloves, scarves and shoes would be offered to
complete a new outfit.
On the back shelves, look for the
Singer Sewing Machines which used ‘chain’ stitch for general purpose sewing,
whereas today a ‘straight’ stitch is used. There is also a fine selection of
children’s lawn bonnets and lace trims for every occasion, plus
the ‘day to day’ needs of sheeting and pillow-case material.
Contents in window:
skirt lifter
(small tong-like gadget) so that ladies could lift their skirts when crossing
the roads used by horse-drawn carriages and coaches
button hooks
– larger ones for doing-up buttons on boots and the smaller ones for gloves
boot pull
– for pulling on tight fitting long boots and riding boots
variety of hat pins
– long ones were Victorian and Edwardian head apparel which were less close
fitting than later styles in the 1920’s
corset
stiffeners were usually made of whalebone or steel |
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Domestic Bazaar (Late Edwardian -
1910) |
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As household products became cheaper, due to mass production,
the domestic bazaar was a cross between an ironmongers and
a china shop. A vast selection to suit all pockets would be
available in this shop, from early electric lighting, fancy and plain
oil lamps, and candles for the poorer families. The windows held an
assortment of tin goods and china, and every space would be filled to give the
best possible impression – ‘If you can’t buy it here, you can’t buy it
anywhere!’
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Judges Camera and Postcard Shop
(1930s) |
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After the 1st World War, the German firm of ‘Leitz’
marketed a folding camera using 35mm film, which was copied by the
British Company ‘Ensign’. The Ensign camera on display was used
in the 1930’s by a sports photographer, Reg Jessop, who worked for
the Eastbourne Gazette.
The first photographic process
was announced as far back as 1839, using wooden boxes and coated metal
plates, superseded by ‘pleated bellow’ cameras in the late 1850’s.
A smaller version of this, the hand-held camera, became popular towards
the end of the 1870’s, but it was still necessary to use a dark room
to change the glass plates.
In 1888 an American, George
Eastman, an ancestor to Linda McCartney, brought out a camera
which was sold ready loaded with a roll of paper-based film. When
exposed, the whole camera had to be returned to the factory for
processing and reloading. The camera was called ‘Kodak’. Kodak
produced the world’s first camera with fully automatic exposure
in 1939.
Judges are a local company based
at Hastings. For many years they have produced postcards of towns
and villages all over the country. In the window display you will see the
sample books carried around newsagents and gift shops by agents in the hope of
getting orders for their products. |
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Laird's Electrical Shop
(1930s-1950s)
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In
this shop you could buy your first black and white TV Set and luxury
items such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners and other
household appliances. Mr. Laird would carry a stock of accessories such as
radio valves, transformers and condensers, in order to make
repairs on behalf of his customers.
Today, it is a ‘throw-away’ society, as most products are nearly as cheap to buy
a replacement, as pay for a costly repair. He would also hold everyday items
such as light bulbs; these would last for years and did not need
replacing very often at all. |
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Wartime Kitchen (1941) |
Florence
Searle, the mother of our family living here, is finding it hard to make ends
meet in this time of war. Flo is a good seamstress and, to help
with the budget, makes all their own clothes. All laundry is washed by
hand in the sink and scrubbed on the washboard you can see standing below the
draining board. Large saucepans or metal containers are used for boiling
‘whites’ and clothes are ironed either with a gas iron similar to that on the
shelf next to the fireplace, or an electric iron plugged into the light
fitting.
To help control distribution of
supplies, in January 1940, many products were put on ration.
It is now 1941, and the tear-out coupon system changed at the end
of last year as it was found to be too time-consuming, so now the coupons are
smaller and the shopkeeper can cancel out a week’s worth with the stroke of a
pen. It also saved on paper which is in short supply and our housewife has to
remember to take her own wrapping paper to the shop where she is registered for
her purchases.
Each member of the family has a ration book and has an allowance of 4oz
(113grams) of butter per week, 2oz cheese, 2oz tea, 12oz sugar, and meat
is now rationed by price not weight, so a weekly allowance
of 1s 2d (one shilling and two pence – 6p today) per adult has been given. We
have experienced the worst loss of food through sinking at sea this year than at
any other time, and this scarcity has brought more food onto rationing and
allowances reduced, in some cases to only 1oz per week each.
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G Granvilles General
Store (1970s) |
General
Stores – early 1970’s (at the time of conversion from pounds, shillings
and pence to decimal coins)A
typical ‘general store’, often found in small towns and villages; a vast
emporium of general grocers and domestic ware, from bags of flour to
individually boxed Oxo cubes (1d – one old penny each), and
from buckets to buttons. These shops started to die out with the coming of the
supermarket (an American idea) and others succumbed to the perils of business
tax, which ate into their small profits. Fortunately, a few have survived, and
it is a rare privilege in this modern age to experience the personal service and
friendliness offered by these hard-working shop-keepers.
Our store is loosely based on that of Arkwrights in ‘Open All Hours’
of television fame, so be careful as Arkwright might be lurking around
the corner, to hike you in by the scruff of your neck to buy a box of
groceries! |
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Pepper's Boutique (1960s-1970s)
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 A
‘pop-art’ shop, similar to that found in Carnaby Street
years ago, selling records, clothes and fashionable accessories from the
psychedelic era.
Feast your eyes on the riot of colour – tangerine, puce, deep purple and violet
clash for space, making a bold statement for ‘choice’. |
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