Rotary Speaker 17 November 2016
Jack Gillett “Old advertising in Tenterden”
Local historian Jack Gillett took us back in time to the days when traffic fumes came from horse droppings and Tenterden telephone numbers had only two digits (nowadays they have six digits and are called “land lines”).
Some of the printed advertising of the early 1900’s read like “Trip Advisor” reports as proprietors assured potential customers of their quality and attentiveness. Possible complaints were anticipated and rebuffed although the principle of “caveat emptor” was generally accepted. In those days you bought at your own risk.
Several Rotarians could be seen in the following days craning their necks to look upwards under the façade of the old butcher’s shop for the meat hooks where the carcasses used to be hung by the roadside, and trying to spot the street lamp that survived two wars without damage.
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Clive Wilson (President Tenterden Rotary Club) thanks Jack Gillett for his presentation
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Webbs of Tenterden advert in 1927
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Hook the butcher, High Street, Tenterden
www.tenterdenrotary.co.uk