Browse Items (13 total)

The stamp was manufactured by Shaw & Sons Ltd, London. It would have been used by council workers to emboss the words ‘ALTRINCHAM CORPORATION’ onto papers, marking them as official council documents.

The Pyramid Cinema on Washway Road in Sale opened its doors in February 1934. It was designed by architects Drury and Gomersall in an Egyptian style which was then mirrored in the cinema’s Christie organ. The first resident organist was Reginald…

The Linotype machine had revolutionised the way that newspapers printed, creating a ‘line-o-type’ by moulding hot metal. The Linotype Company opened its factory to produce the machines at the end of the nineteenth century, when the Broadheath…

Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co. Ltd or ‘Metrovicks’ was an electrical engineering company situated in Trafford Park. The business started life as British Westinghouse in 1899 but took on the name Metropolitan-Vickers in 1919 after some changes in…

These dolls are thought to date from the 1880s. Before the Victorian period, brown was the most popular eye colour for dolls but this changed to blue, inspired by the colour of the Queen’s eyes.

This match box dates from around 1830 and was donated with paper matches inside. Note the phoenix design on the front with the lettering 'M.B Co'. On the back of the box there is a rough rectangle for striking the matches on and the lettering ‘A.S…

Skirt lifters were used by Victorian ladies to stop their skirts from dragging in the dirt, or to allow for extra movement during physical activities, such as cycling or tennis. Although they were already in existence, skirt lifters became…

Before sugar cubes and granulated sugar were introduced at the end of the nineteenth century, sugar was bought as a cone or ‘sugarloaf’. Sugar nippers were used to break pieces off the cone.

A goffering iron, often known as an Italian or Tally iron, was used for frilled cuffs and ruffles. The tube was heated by inserting a hot metal poker-like rod. The frilled cuffs and collars would then be curled around the cylinder, smoothing them…

Stretford Memorial Hospital was opened on 28 October 1914, with twenty beds, by the Old Trafford Divisional Committee of the Red Cross Hospital Society, as an auxiliary hospital to the Second Western General. It was enlarged from time to time as the…