THE people of Witney wouldn’t have had much difficulty remembering local telephone numbers in the 1930s.

Most subscribers had numbers with just two or three digits.

AH Rowley, a clothes shop near the Buttercross, where you could buy a pair of flannel trousers for 10s 6d, could be contacted on Witney 59, while the number for the Little Fruit Shop at 23 High Street was Witney 64.

T Byard and Son’s fish shop was on Witney 124 and the Corn Street Garage on Witney 189.

A copy of our sister paper, the Witney Gazette, for Friday, October 11, 1935, right, found recently in the Witney Gazette office in the town centre, gives a fascinating insight into life in the west Oxfordshire town at that time.

The front page of the four-page broadsheet newspaper, which cost a penny, was filled with advertisements.

There were announcements about church services, concerts, evening classes, dry cleaning, auctions, dog food, beer and furniture removal.

On a more sombre note, families could hire a motor-driven or horse-drawn hearse and have mourning cards printed at short notice.

The other three pages were devoted to news from Witney and district, with reports from many local organisations, including bellringers, women’s institutes, football clubs and churches.

There was an upbeat message from Capt Sidney Smith, president of Witney British Legion, which had seen membership increase by 27.

He told the annual meeting: “This branch stands as high or higher in the estimation of people of the town and county than it has ever stood before.

“We have a body of men in Witney definitely working to foster the ideals of the Legion and the spirit of comradeship which was a feature of their life when fighting in the Great War.”

At the time, courts clearly showed little mercy for those who broke the law.

A 25-year-old married woman pleaded guilty to stealing a lady’s bicycle, a mackintosh coat and a handbag, total value £6.

Witney magistrates, with Mr CW Early presiding at the hearing, sentenced her to three months’ imprisonment at the women’s prison at Holloway, in London.