Wolverhampton - Industrial & Residential Handbook, 1934 : Wolverhampton Industrial Development Association
As many of you will have guessed I do have a bit of a 'thing' for the official guides and handbooks that were issued by the vast majority of British local authorities during the Twentieth Century. These publications were used to extol the virtues of the town or city concerned both to existing residents, keen to know more about their home town, but also designed to inform and potentially lure newcomers and new industries. This one for the then County Borough of Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, is very much aimed at the latter market.
Whereas seaside towns and resorts often used the front cover as an immediate visual 'lure' such a scene for an industrial town, such as Wolverhampton, was usually a little more tricky and the default was usually the borough's coat of arms. But this 1934 cover is superlative in terms of design and execution; a rich glimpse of the life and industry of this Midland Town. Loosely based on Queens Square by night, with its four bracketed street light, it crams in not only various of Wolverhampton's important buildings but some of the products of the town. The locally built symbol of municipal modernity, the Sunbeam or Guy trolleybus advertising locally manufactured Goodyear tyres, the same products that carry the luxurious Sunbeam motor car we see. The glamorous couple buying their copy of the still produced local paper, the Express & Star, as they head to the Queens Picture House. And my money is on the fact that the child waiting for the 2A 'bus will be wearing a rayon garment made in the town by Courtuald's.
It is one of the best industrial town guides I have seen. Produced by "B&T" (whom I should know) the guide was issued by an effective arm of the Borough council, the Industrial Development Association. In the 1930s the town did remarkably well in establishing 'new' industries, such as rayon, rubber and electrical equipment, so as to help balance out an historic reliance on traditional metal based industries.
Wolverhampton - Industrial & Residential Handbook, 1934 : Wolverhampton Industrial Development Association
As many of you will have guessed I do have a bit of a 'thing' for the official guides and handbooks that were issued by the vast majority of British local authorities during the Twentieth Century. These publications were used to extol the virtues of the town or city concerned both to existing residents, keen to know more about their home town, but also designed to inform and potentially lure newcomers and new industries. This one for the then County Borough of Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, is very much aimed at the latter market.
Whereas seaside towns and resorts often used the front cover as an immediate visual 'lure' such a scene for an industrial town, such as Wolverhampton, was usually a little more tricky and the default was usually the borough's coat of arms. But this 1934 cover is superlative in terms of design and execution; a rich glimpse of the life and industry of this Midland Town. Loosely based on Queens Square by night, with its four bracketed street light, it crams in not only various of Wolverhampton's important buildings but some of the products of the town. The locally built symbol of municipal modernity, the Sunbeam or Guy trolleybus advertising locally manufactured Goodyear tyres, the same products that carry the luxurious Sunbeam motor car we see. The glamorous couple buying their copy of the still produced local paper, the Express & Star, as they head to the Queens Picture House. And my money is on the fact that the child waiting for the 2A 'bus will be wearing a rayon garment made in the town by Courtuald's.
It is one of the best industrial town guides I have seen. Produced by "B&T" (whom I should know) the guide was issued by an effective arm of the Borough council, the Industrial Development Association. In the 1930s the town did remarkably well in establishing 'new' industries, such as rayon, rubber and electrical equipment, so as to help balance out an historic reliance on traditional metal based industries.