IN previous articles, I mentioned that I had found a pamphlet titled “Life & Work” which is dated May 1893 and had fallen from the gallery area of Barony St. John’s church when part of the plaster came down.

The pamphlet contains the usual sermons and hymns but also some fascinating Victorian advertisements.

One of the adverts was for The John Noble Knock About Frocks - and it peaked my curiosity.

It seems that this marked an era of mass produced dresses where women could buy garments “off the peg” at affordable prices instead of the traditional made to measure dresses.

A trawl of the internet found some other John Noble garments and adverts from a 1895 edition and 1897 edition of The Daily News. Further research into when John Noble Ltd of Brook Street Mills, Manchester was set up showed that they were established in 1893 - the same year as my advert.

The garments were made of various fabrics including cheviot (a soft, luxurious but hard-wearing wool flannel weave) and an even more hard wearing serge (a type of twill fabric that has diagonal lines or ridges on both sides, made with a two-up, two-down weave) which would no doubt be used for work wear / everyday dress wear rather than formal wear.

Unusually though, these affordable dresses were very fashionable incorporating all the latest styles (note the state of the art puffed ‘leg of mutton’ sleeves in the adverts from 1895 and 1897 as opposed to the straighter sleeve in my advert from only a few years earlier in 1893).

And these dresses could be purchased in a variety of colours including bronze, ruby, cinnamon and even electric blue. But the part of the advert that really caught my eye and made me laugh is this - Observe closely the style, cut, make and finish of these costumes.

Of imitations there are many, but there is nothing in the world to equal The John Noble Half Guinea Costumes for stylish appearance, durability and actual money value and intending purchasers are asked to remember that these garments are guaranteed made absolutely without any sweating of the workers. It seems sweatshops and cheap, forced labour were a worry even back then.

I hope you enjoyed this insight into Victorian life via the Barony St John building and understand why it is important to keep these historical buildings and their connections with the past. If you liked this article, you may also be interested in reading more ‘behind the scenes’ news about my discoveries, the trials and tribulations of maintaining such an old building and the renovation work already undertaken in the Barony St. John buildings.

Check out my blog at www.ardrossman.wordpress.com or if you would like to volunteer to help our charity, help us fundraise to save the church buildings or simply know more about our charity, please contact us via our website www.ScotCPS.org.uk or look us up (ScotCPS) on Facebook or Twitter.

Goodbye for now.