Published at 10:41, Saturday, 30 June 2012

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THERE was a time when Barrow had a shop on half its street corners and a pub on the rest.

They were all festooned with colourful enamel signs promoting the best points of everything from chewing tobacco to grate cleaner.

Our main pictures is of a traditional Barrow shop on the corner of Rawlinson Street and Ramsden Street.

The stationer and tobacconist, called J.A Dodd, used signs to tell everyone that he sold popular branded products from the likes of Will’s and Player’s.

Advertising for cigarette and tobacco products is now banned but it has not stopped the old signs from becoming collectable and part of our social history.

The range of signs shown on today’s page are on display at the Blists Hill Victorian Town which opened at Ironbridge in Shropshire in 1973.

The museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm and you can find out more on the website at www.ironbridge.org. uk/our_attractions/blists_hill_victorian_town

Vitreous enamel signs are strong and hard wearing. It retains its bright colours far longer than paint or print.

In Victorian times it became very popular but its use began to fade in the 1920s and was stopped due to steel shortages in the Second World War.

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