Northwich Guardian from 1946 found under floor in Barnton

Sid Williams and his wife, Tess, experienced a sudden 'blast from the past' when he lifted the underlay in a bedroom of their 1930s semi on Whitley Avenue when decorating in December, last year.  

What they found was a yellowed and very fragile copy of the Northwich Guardian, but still perfectly readable, dated Friday, July 12, 1946.

Sid said: “It was well and truly buried under a load of old matting beneath the underlay. 

"It looked like it had been used to level the floor."

The front page includes a write up of a visit to Cheshire by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth - King Charles' grandparents - including details of the route their entourage took through Northwich, though they didn't stop. 

Not all the stories are quite so grand. Sid, 39, described it as 'a bit of a time capsule' as even a quick flick through speaks volumes about the massive shift in values in 79 years.

The paper was published on Friday, July 12, 1946 (Image: Newsquest) A front page features, for example, includes a report about the Plaza Cinema, which had sparked moral outrage by being the first picture house in town to show a film on a Sunday - The Amateur Gentleman starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. 

It also includes a write up of an inquest into the death of German prisoner of war, Josef Hanf, who was hit by a truck on Chester Road in Hartford while engaged in roadworks on February 17, 1946.

It mentions the German physician, Dr Walter Gehn, then employed at Toft Hall POW camp in Knutsford where Mr Hanf was imprisoned, who came to give evidence.

After giving his evidence to the coroner in surgical scrubs, Dr Gehn, stood, then ‘clicked his heels in Prussian military style, and marched out’.

The paper provides details of an upcoming royal visit to Cheshire, which included a non-stop drive through Northwich (Image: Newsquest) Something you'd be less likely to see these days is a story concerning Mr G Lightfoot, of Lydyett Lane, Barnton, whose prize yucca plant had just flowered for the second time in 12 years.

The adverts also speak of bygone time, which include gas cookery demonstrations, and a whole column of 'positions' for domestic servants, including maids, gardeners, chauffeurs, and even a butler.

Sid said: “At first, I thought, ‘oh, this looks old’ because it’s pretty yellowed, but when I saw the story about the King and Queen visiting, I realised just how old it actually was.  

“I also didn’t realise there was a German POW camp in Knutsford. I showed my dad, and he thought it was quite sad it was 1946 and the poor guy still hadn’t been sent home.

Sid said he was surprised Josef Hanf, a German prisoner of war killed by a van on Chester Road, had not been sent home by July 1946 (Image: Newsquest) “Clearly a lot's changed since then. What's considered normal now is obviously wildly different.

“A thing which stuck out for me was the details of the weddings. The writer described exactly what the groom’s mum was wearing.

“And the story about the yucca in Barnton, though I expect that was a pretty exotic thing to own back then. It would’ve been the only one flowering in Northwich at that point, for sure.

“The gas cookery demonstrations was probably the equivalent of going to the Apple store today and trying out their latest VR goggles.

“The demonstrator would have been the Apple Genius of her time.”

Sid, who runs a men's homeless charity in Manchester, said he wants to put the paper back under the floor where he found it, along with a copy of the paper in which this story appears. 

He wants a future owner of his house to find it and for them to be just as intrigued as he was when he made the discovery. 

Sid added: “We hope someone else find it in however many years’ time, along with the story about it.

"They'll probably think they’re going mad."