The Wiltshire Gazette – 1936

Market Lavington’s museum founder, Peggy Gye, collected many items with a village connection, including a few newspapers. By the time the museum opened in 1985, this one had already been saved for almost half a century.

The Wiltshire Gazette had a very large format, with much squeezed in, with tiny print. This first page has seven columns.

Dating from 25th June 1936, we have already seen the local items in it – The death of Edward Doubleday and Easterton Tennis – 1936, but we thought you might like to see a couple of advertisements too.

This one reminds us of the expectations then that women would spend their time as housewives and mothers.

Another advertisement from the same paper reminds us that washday (usually a Monday) involved a lot of time and effort as most homes didn’t have a washing machine until the 1950s.