We found this newspaper in an old iron safe that had previously belonged to my Great Aunt. The newspaper’s a whopping one hundred and fifteen years old and it felt a bit weird knowing that we were probably the first people to have looked at it since it had been stuffed into the back of the safe all those years ago.

Reading through the news from 1896 it was the adverts that really caught my eye. Produced in a time long before anyone had dreamt up the idea of brand identity or trading standards they come across as wonderfully naive. The Victorian copywriting trend for repeating words in capital letters is definitely an attention grabber. Who could possibly resist the charms of HAMS! HAMS! CHEESE! CHEESE! BACON! BACON! from Liptons grocery shop?

Sufferers of blood impurities must have been reassured by this very confident advert from Clarke’s World-Famed Blood Mixture. The typesetter has created a helpful column that screams THE BLOOD – just in case it wasn’t clear that Blood Mixture was for your, erm, blood.

Carters took a more playful approach to convince readers that their sugar coated pills really were the bees knees. Their little rhyme is ever so sweet, quite modest in-fact, when you consider that they’d found a cure for liver disease.

Hearts Content

When I become a very old lady I think I’ll end up living in something that resembles a Womble’s house which comprises of tunnels burrowed between walls of old stuff that I can’t bear to throw away.

In the meantime I’m trying to at least be more organised in how I store the objects that I keep accumulating. I gathered these gadgets together after a recent sort out in the attic. My kids have told me on no account must I throw away the old PS1 and Gameboy, which makes me think that this hoarding thing must be genetic.

The Walkman Sports is also staying with us. It belongs to my other half and I love how it symbolises the 80′s in its jaunty yellow casing. It makes me want to get a perm and then go for a jog whilst listening to Now Thats What I Call  Music 4.

The first time I used a Sony Walkman was when I was thirteen and the song was Malcolm MacClaren’s Madame Butterfly. An older (17) and wiser (had more cash than the rest of us) friend had turned up with his Walkman one evening and we all took turns listening to it and saying ‘WOW ITS AMAZING!’ really loudly. But it was amazing and I’m glad that I’m from a generation that saw this bit of technology appear for the first time because it felt completely new to be able to walk down the street immersed in your own world.

I’m also eternally grateful that the first song I heard on a personal stereo was by Malcolm Maclaren when it could so easily have been Wham.

I found this clunky typewriter discarded in the undergrowth of the park near my house last September. It looked bizarre sprawled in the autumn leaves with its dislocated hinges and wonky metal arms. At the time I was rushing on my way to work and couldn’t drag it along with me so I took a quick picture instead and made a mental note of its name – Imperial Portable.

We already have a typewriter in our house and one mechanical writing machine is enough for any family so I admit I did consider leaving it in amongst the shrubs looking weird and rusty.  But I felt responsible for it and was compelled  to walk through the park on my way home,  just to check it was still there.

That evening I showed the photo to my good friend Sarah who insisted we rescue it and promptly marched me to the park to fish it out from its hiding place. Once home the Imperial Portable lay neglected in my cellar for a few months before it found refuge with a kind man who rehabilitates poorly typewriters. Apparently its been restored to its original regal splendour and is now in good company. I’m expecting a type written postcard from it any day soon.

Meet Dolly. She was found on the floor of a car park on a cold grey morning in February this year. I think she did a teeny tiny wave to get my attention but then stayed very still whilst I picked her out from the gravel and broken glass. The friend who was with me at the time was intrigued to see what had caused me to stop in my tracks and sift through the muck and grime. She guffawed when she saw the grubby figurine in my palm, which was fair enough, but I felt strangely maternal towards Dolly and kept her safely in my pocket.

Dolly lives at my house now and I think she quite likes getting lost. I don’t see her for weeks on end and then she’ll turn up on a window sill, or a book shelf. So I put her in my pocket and then go and lose her all over again.
Hearts Content

Recently we had some building work done on our house which involved knocking into the wall of the chimney breast. It was a messy job for all those concerned (not me, I went to the park) but a small reward lay hidden in the brickwork. This perfectly preserved, albeit empty, packet of Wild Woodbine ciggies from who knows when.  After being  protected from daylight by the sooty darkness of the chimney the colours are pristine and the packet looks like new.

Apparently its not uncommon to find an old shoe lodged in a chimney, its an unfortunate hazard of the job if you’re a chimney sweep. But I’m not sure about packets of ciggies and would love to know if anyone else has found strange things squirrelled away in the brickwork of their house.
Hearts Content

Well, its been a long time, but Hearts Content is back home from the Charity Shop and has plenty of hand me down bits and pieces to share. We’re looking forward to dusting down the blog and soon have it looking as lovely as a bit of old tat from the Sunday Car Boot Sale.

To get our house in order we’ve upgraded to WordPress 3.1 (we were previously operating on a steampowered version from the olden days). Our upgrade is thanks to some sound advice from the good doctors at the Social Media Surgery followed by some technical geekery by Mr Cliff Manning.

This post started off as a test photo from Cliff to make sure the cogs were all working so, in the spirit of Hearts Content, we’ve borrowed it to welcome in this new era of secondhand stories.

Story Donated By Hearts Content

Well, Hearts Content have been a bit absent of late, so to make up for the lack of communication we’re sharing our lovely old skool telephone. I bought the phone in a fit of nostalgia last year and had to show my 15 year old daughter how to use it because she’d started tapping on the black receiver buttons in morse code style to make a phone call.

There are lots of reasons to like this clunky bit of technology: the dial makes lovely whirring and clicking sounds; the curly cord is great to wrap around your finger around whilst you’re mid-gossip; and the very loud and alarming ‘brrring! brrring!’ makes you answer the phone as if you were an emergency service operator from the Olden Days.

There are times when you feel like throwing it in the bin – like when you have to dial someones mobile number in a hurry, or if your bank insists on making you ‘press three now’ when you ring up to get an extension on your overdraft.
Hearts Content

This picture shows the fantastically named Avon Beeby showing off one of the many dresses made by ‘mother’ almost sixty years ago. Avon told Hearts Content that the dresses were made for the dance troupe she belonged to in 1950 – Ethel Ritches’ Dancing Class. There were six girls in the troupe and ‘mother’ made all the costumes which often meant sewing up to twenty-four dresses for each performance. If you look closely at the picture you’ll see that this dress had an Irish theme with shamrocks and wishing wells sewn on to the bodice.

Avon decided to give the costumes away to St Gemmas Hospice Vintage Fair and when Hearts Content spoke to her she was hoping to find someone who was going to give them a new lease of life and maybe one more encore.
Hearts Content

Story Donated By Rachel McAlley:
I was recently at my Aunt’s having Sunday lunch and she invited me to rummage around her fabulously stylish closet and I was allowed to choose anything I wanted.  I instantly fell in love with this bag, especially with it’s little story.

My Aunt tells me that in 1957, a few weeks prior to their wedding, my Uncle went to Marbella for a gentleman’s holiday and returned to the UK with this absolutely gorgeous black leather shoulder bag.  The bag was given as a pre-wedding gift to my Aunt and since then she has used the bag as little as 3 times. You can see from the photograph it’s in absolutely pristine condition.

I have used the bag only once since my Aunt kindly donated it, however at the time I was a little nervous and wondered if the people around me could sense how precious the bag was to me, and now I’m secretly thinking that I should lock it away for another 52 years.

But …. it does look pretty darn good with my outfit today, maybe I’ll put it away in a safe place tomorrow!
Rachel McAlley
aka LadyRach on Twitter

Hearts Content found Robert Burt sporting this fetching pair of Incredible Hulk gloves at St Gemmas Retro Fair.  He’d snapped them up at the fair for the princely sum of One Pound and was very happy to model his new purchase in the Hearts Content Portrait Booth. As well as looking extremely stylish they make impressive roaring sounds.

Robert told us that he’d bought them for his grandson, but we’re not sure we believe him.
Hearts Content

As told to Claire Anderson:
I am a very pretty ball-gown made from a beautiful silky, cottony fabric, with rich claret stripes. I was handmade in the 1950′s for a lovely curvy lady with pointy breasts. After that, I was altered to fit another lady, who had some funny ideas about straps and frilly bits. None the less, my useful upside down crumb catcher hid a multitude of stitching sins.

The following years were spent languishing in wardrobes, dressing up boxes and clothes rails of girls who were drawn to me, but weren’t sure what to do with me.

I’d given up all hope of living life in the limelight ever again until that rainy December day in 2007 when I found myself on a stall at Saltaire’s Vintage Fair. Peeping out of a packed rail, my fetching candy stripe skirt caught the eye of Claire, a blushing bride-to-be. She tried me on over her jeans and trainers in a cramped toilet (oh the indignity!) and didn’t seem that convinced. But there must have been something there because she did a deal with my owner – £44, with a pair of red Bally shoes thrown in – and I was hers.

I came to my new home, and waited.

Months later, I was pulled out, and my transformation began. Naomi Parker, a talented seamstress, got her hands on me and Claire, and worked her magic. She made me fit Claire like a glove. She removed my straps, took off the unsightly frill, boned me, stuffed me, sewed me, re-buttoned me, took parts out, but some back in, made me a petticoat – and there I was. The grandest, most beautiful wedding dress in the world.

I was so proud.

Now I’m stored away for Claire’s daughter to see, touch, try on and maybe even wear when she’s older. And then, who knows what the next chapter of my story might be, but I’m sure my journey is far from over.
Claire Anderson

Story Donated By Sarah Howells:
Another purchase for packaging, plus curiosity, plus having it for having it’s sake. Definitely no more than 60p.

I don’t know what the matter is with just using a spoon and mug, though I suppose the Horlicks Mixer allows for careful measuring as marked on the side of the heavy glass container, the implement is similar to a mini washing dolly, a long pole with a disc at the bottom with holes in for vigorous frothing I guess.

Always preferred Ovaltine myself.
Sarah Howells

Story Donated By Rachel McAlley
I was working on the Leeds Shopping Week 2008 project and one of the events I was hosting was a Swishing event, straight from the coolest New York and London second hand party scene.  The rules behind my Swishing event were as follows:
1 – all ladies could bring up to 5 accessories that they no longer wanted
2 – no fighting between swishers
3 – all ladies go home with gorgeous new accessories

I had around 20 ladies that come along to the Swishing party that was held at The Living Room in Leeds, each lady brought up to 5 items they no longer wanted (belts, bags, shoes, brooches, hats, gloves, jewels etc), all items were placed on a big table, and they were perused and tried on by the guests.  All accessories were placed back onto the table, all ladies were asked to leave the room and then the party started!

I blew a whistle and each lady ran into the room and grabbed an item that she wanted (one lady fell onto the floor in the madness of the rush) and then they left the room with their new accessory.  I blew my whistle 5 times until all the accessories were gone.

All proceeds (£5 entrance fee) were given to Yorkshire Breast Cancer Haven and any left over accessories were donated to the Charity for them to auction, raffle or giveaway.

The one and only accessory I had fallen in love with, and the one and only accessory that no-one wanted was the most amazing bright blue knitted woolen trilby hat.  And, as I was running the event I couldn’t take part until the very end.  But my wishes came true and it became mine.

Rachel McAlley

Story Donated By Hearts Content

I bought this cake stand last year from a charity shop in Leeds, I love the chintzy colour and its funny prim chrome handle. The lady I bought it from told me that she’d been given a similar cake stand as a wedding present and that, more than thirty years later, she still uses it today. It all sounded really romantic and I imagined her and her husband gazing into each others eyes over the cake stand, eating lemon drizzle cake and sipping cups of tea on their wedding anniversary.

When she cottoned onto what I was thinking (well, maybe not the detail about the lemon drizzle cake) she roared with laughter and told me that she’d divorced him a few years after tying the knot and that the only thing worth saving from her marriage was the cake stand. Apparently it was the best decision of her life, and now she gets to eat all the cake.
Happy Valentines Day!
Hearts Content

Story Donated By Frankie McGregor
@ St Gemmas Retro Fair

This hat came to me by chance. I run a vintage shop in Leeds, Lily De La Mers Vintage, but I had never really considered selling mens clothes until a guy called Joe came in with a suitcase full. The clothes were in such good condition and so interesting that I couldn’t resist! I’ve since learned that the hat is from around the 1920′s and would probably have been worn by a drayman delivering beer from a wagon. I’ve also been told that the hat is in mint condition and looks like its spent its whole life in a box. The label on the rim says it was made in Halifax (West Yorkshire).

I love the quality and style. Unlike most of my vintage things I feel it has virtually no history. Its almost like nipping into the 1920s for a brand new hat!
Frankie McGregor