Making the news now and in 1923 (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Making the news now and in 1923

1:00pm Saturday 13th March 2010

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A KIDDERMINSTER man who found a 1923 edition of The Shuttle while moving house wants to donate it to the town library.

Jim Lawson, 59, of King’s Road, found the Saturday, March 24, 1923 edition when moving from his grandparents’ old home in Rock.

He said: “It was in a drawer. I have no idea why it was there but, obviously, when you clear a house out and find something like that you don’t destroy it.

”It is history and history should never be destroyed. It should be made available for all to see.”

The paper includes advertisements from still existing businesses in Kidderminster, such as estate agents, Phipps and Pritchard, as well as an advert for tutorial at King Charles I School.

Former well-known local traders are present and there are references to businesses such as G A Bateman and Son, who sold “gents road racers” from £5.

Mr Lawson said: “The paper shows just how industrious Kidderminster was in those days.

“If you look at all the things going on it was what you would call a vibrant Midlands town.”

In the sports section, space is given to the billiard and bagatelle leagues, while Kidderminster Harriers lie fifth from bottom of the Birmingham Football League.

Amid the editorial is a report of the prosecution for bigamy of a man married illegally to a Kidderminster woman.

A story headlined “a drunken freak” reports an apparent drunken prank, in which a man stole a clock from a doctor’s car and was thought to be lucky to escape a prison sentence.

There are also reviews of Kidderminster Choral Society’s rendition of Bach’s The Passion and silent movie, The Sheik, showing at the Picture House in Vicar Street, and starring Rudolph Valentino.

Local unemployment figures for the week ending Monday, March 19, 1923 are given as men, 512, women, 101, boys, 13 and girls, five.

Mr Lawson said he wanted to give the newspaper to the library on permanent loan but said it would need to be suitably presented, as the fragile large broadsheet is printed on double-sided paper.

Kurt Sidaway, community library manager, said: “We would certainly accept it if he wants to donate it to the library.

“We can add it to our ephemera collection so people will be able to see what an actual 1923 Shuttle looked like.

“Our archive of papers are all on microfilm so they are not quite the same as seeing the physical object.”

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