Celebrating 90 years of Cheshire Life

The following commentaries are adapted from a feature written by English Language lecturer Dr Matt Davies for the 90th anniversary (May 2024) edition of Cheshire Life. Scroll through the exhibition images below to see Cheshire Life through the ages.

Beekeeper - October 1948. Dialect such as “a reet Cheshire mon” appears occasionally in the magazine, as in this 1948 portrait of humble bee-keeper, Mr. James Buckley from Antrobus on a page usually reserved for those higher up the social ladder. This writer of an article on Mr Buckley published in this edition, describes him as “bee-keeper, craftsman, good neighbour – a ‘reet cheshire mon’”.
Lady Delamere – October 1935. In 1935, Cheshire Life was bought by a new publisher - advertising expert Christopher Nicholls, of the Phillips Press, Manchester. Among many changes, he introduced a Cheshire version of Country Life’s ‘girls in pearls’ portraits, usually of Cheshire aristocrats, debutantes and heiresses, which regularly appeared on the title page. This portrait is of Lady Delamere, previously know as The Hon. Phyllis Anne Montagu Douglas Scott, daughter of Lord George Scott, the second son of the Duke of Buccleuch. According to R.M. Bevan in The Lives and Loves of the Delameres (2021) she was a “long-legged breathtakingly beautiful aristocrat from the upper reaches of nobility” who married Thomas Pitt Hamilton Cholmondeley, the 4th Baron Delamere, in 1924. Lady Delamere frequently appeared in national magazine advertisements endorsing Pond’s Face Powder. The Delameres lived in Vale Royal Abbey, which is featured in this edition of Cheshire Life.
‘Cheshire Man’ – November 1970. This is what the 1970s ‘Cheshire Man’ was wearing, according to a November 1970 advert from Wilmslow department store Finnigans, appealing to county patriotism. This Italian-style evening woollen suit (colour unknown) cost £44 back in the day, the equivalent of an eye-watering £912 today! Advertisers shared in the magazine’s project of reflecting and developing a distinctive Cheshire ethos.
Edna Lloyd Smith – September 1942. This wartime women’s fashion advert from September 1942 combines style, support for the war effort and a ‘film noir’ aesthetic. Marketed by Hale-based Edna Lloyd Smith, who regularly featured a series of striking images in Cheshire Life, the advert suggests you can contribute to the war effort whilst looking dapper in a bomb shelter! The model – looking down at what could be a weapon which she appears to have smashed with a hammer – looks demure in her “tweed coat with contrasting bands let in” and is potentially rather incongruous against a backdrop of images of tanks and fighter planes on fire!
The Queen’s England - May 1953 This full colour montage of ’Scenes in the Cheshire Countryside’ marks the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, using favourite beauty spots and distinctive buildings to link county identity to royalty. From top left, in a clockwise direction, these Cheshire scenes are as follows; 1)Chorley Hall, near Alderley; 2) A summer evening near Sandbach; 3) Brink Farm, above Bollington; 4) The Old Dee Bridge at Chester; 5) Between Marton and Macclesfield; 6) Rural peace at Pott Shrigley; 7) The XVI Century Moreton Hall ; 8) The Bear’s Head Inn, Brereton; 9) Marbury Mere, near Nantwich; 10) The Sands of Dee.
Ford Zephyr advert – May 1953. Cheshire and Manchester-based car sales company H. & J. Quick Ltd, use a traditional Cheshire backdrop to market the new Ford Zephyr Six to give the impression of tradition and modernity working in harmony. The cottages “reflect the life and virtues of yeoman England, and give to the visitor an impression of steadiness and durability”, qualities which it claims matched in the car – in its “bold lines” and “smooth performance”.