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| Bridge St, Port Sunlight. |
'Every picture tells a story', as the old saying goes - but is it really the story that you think it is? I was intrigued by this old postcard (left), which I bought recently. The caption reads 'Colleens Dancing, Ballymaclinton (McClinton's Town, erected by the makers of McClinton's Soap)'. I hadn't heard of Ballymaclinton, but surmised that it might be a town built for factory workers by their employer, like
Saltaire,
New Lanark or
Port Sunlight. However, after a little research online, I found that Ballymaclinton was an
advertising gimmick for a soap firm! This
fake village was one of the star attractions of the
Franco-British Exhibition of 1908. I thought that the 'colleens dancing' looked very posed - and the houses were amazingly white and clean. But it's still a fun postcard for my collection!
Photo
© Sue Wilkes.
