Scarfolk Council

Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.

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Friday, 28 June 2013

"We Won't Forget. So You Can't" (1973)

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Illicitly and unconstitutionally spying on a whole nation requires an enormous amount of taxpayers' money. That is why, in 1973, Scarfol...
3 comments:
Monday, 24 June 2013

"Mr. Nationalist"

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Until 1978 foreigners were officially classified by the government as livestock and were subcategorised by odour. Defining who was and was...
10 comments:
Sunday, 16 June 2013

Primary school tapeworm experiments (1970s)

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Back in the 1970s there was no way of ascertaining how some medical products might affect humans. Rabbits, chimps and other animals were n...
12 comments:
Sunday, 9 June 2013

"Is Mankind a Board Game?" 1973

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Scarfolk had its fair share of UFO/deity conspiracies in the 1970s. The town's resident UFO expert Bert Cage insisted that extraterrestr...
6 comments:
Friday, 31 May 2013

"Scarfolk Drop" Tourism poster. 1970

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Decades before 'assisted suicide' was offered by organisations such as Switzerland's Dignitas, Scarfolk Council had its own kind...
6 comments:
Saturday, 25 May 2013

Sex, Sex, Sex 1978 (Part II)

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Here's another page from the 1978 biology textbook taught in Scarfolk schools. This time it's about female reproduction. ...
7 comments:
Saturday, 18 May 2013

"Pick off your litter" & Mobile Termination Units (1977)

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After the case of James Sprout (go here for more detail) the government realised that parents desired more control over their offspring, so...
3 comments:
Friday, 10 May 2013

The "Don't" campaign and Kak, 1973

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This public information poster is from the "Don't" campaign, which started in 1973. The council became increasingly concerne...
45 comments:
Tuesday, 7 May 2013

The ghost of Mrs. Payne (field recording), 1975

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The mayor has decided that it's time to hear more from Scarfolk's audio archive. This post refers to a previous one about the disa...
6 comments:
Wednesday, 1 May 2013

1970s greetings cards

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On the subject on stationers (see previous post ), here's a greetings card sold during the mid-70s. This one was recently found behind a...
12 comments:
Monday, 29 April 2013

W. Smith newspapers, magazines, stationery, 1979

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Here's a 1979 shopping carrier bag from W. Smith, a leading newsagent, stationers and music shop. When Winston Smith retired from the ...
6 comments:
Friday, 26 April 2013

"Stop The Ripper From Killing Again" Police appeal ads

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This police message appeared in national newspapers and as posters in Scarfolk schools, libraries and community centres for occult clon...
4 comments:
Monday, 22 April 2013

"Never Go With Strange Children" public information poster, 1977

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This public information poster was ubiquitous during the mid-1970s when there was a spate of cases involving adults being abducted ...
15 comments:
Wednesday, 17 April 2013

"Put Down Old People At Birth" Conservative Party campaign leaflet, 1979

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With the funeral of ex-prime minister and hobby taxidermist Margaret Thatcher underway, it is perhaps appropriate that this item from the ar...
14 comments:
Monday, 15 April 2013

Tupperware urns, 1973

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Here's a scan of a Tupperware advert that appeared in a 1973 issue of the The Scarfolk Times Sunday magazine. Back in the early 1970s...
8 comments:
Friday, 12 April 2013

"Let's Learn About...Torture" 1976

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This textbook was taught in Scarfolk schools in 1976. Here's an excerpt from the introduction: " Experts agree that information a...
5 comments:
Monday, 8 April 2013

"How to Wash a Child's Brain" Pelican Books, 1971

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With the SHS (Scarfolk Health Service) stretched to its limits and running low on resources, parents in the early 1970s were encouraged to r...
5 comments:
Saturday, 6 April 2013

"Black Spot" public discretion cards, 1978

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Scarfolk Council had a few problems with outsiders, or "Scarfnots" as they were known, interfering in town affairs throughout ...
6 comments:
Thursday, 4 April 2013

Meet Mr. Rumbelows, Minister for Health.

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Here's another page from the children's book " Let's Sing The Unspeakable Together, " which was first published in...
1 comment:
Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Mills & Boon: "Catheters, Kisses & Colostomies" 1974

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Until 1971 married women were only allowed to leave their husbands' homes if they had the appropriate documentation. The so-called '...
3 comments:
Monday, 1 April 2013

Vicks Vaporub Blindness Ointment, 1978

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You've probably not even recovered from the excitement of the last postcard from the mayor's rare 1970s pharmaceutical collection, ...
2 comments:
Friday, 29 March 2013

Summer Holiday Diseases Colouring Book, 1976

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This is another page from the hospital records of the anonymous little girl who was found wandering Scarfolk in 1976 (more here ) The colo...
4 comments:
Monday, 25 March 2013

Thought-Detector vans, 1973

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Many will remember the TV detector vans that stalked suburban Britain in the 1970s. Scarfolk was chosen to take part in a government schem...
8 comments:
Wednesday, 20 March 2013

TV test card & "The Scarfolk Nurse"

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Here's a BBC Scarfolk TV testcard from 1970. The SHS (Scarfolk Health Service) suggested these particular photographs in an attempt to ...
15 comments:
Monday, 18 March 2013

"Space Minstrel" by Beige. Prog rock, 1978

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Back in the early 1970s, people were listening to progressive rock concept albums by bands such as Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, & The Ca...
8 comments:
Thursday, 14 March 2013

LWT & Open University TV broadcast signal intrusions 1974

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A while back we told you about a strange aberration that occurred during a Granada TV broadcast in 1978 (see here for more details). Some...
4 comments:
Monday, 11 March 2013

"Wake Up!" road safety public information poster

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Naturally, road safety is as important in Scarfolk as it is anywhere else. There was a car accident on Scarfolk Moors in November, 1975. A...
4 comments:
Friday, 8 March 2013

"Spontaneous! Human Combustion" Annual 1970

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**Warning: Contains images of death (& unfashionable footwear)** The mayor wishes that such a warning had been issued on publications...
7 comments:
Wednesday, 6 March 2013

Sadocrem

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Back in the very early 70s, Sadocrem was also used as a low-fat butter substitute or whipped and added to fruit trifles.
3 comments:
Sunday, 3 March 2013

"Is your mummy who she says she is?"

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On the subject of strange visitors to Scarfolk, in October, 1974, there was a spate of cases involving parents being supplanted by eerie imp...
15 comments:
Friday, 1 March 2013

Field recording: "The Tim Seven" / Birds. Summer 1972

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A few posts back we broached the subject of 'The Tim Seven.'  "Seven tourists visited that summer. Oddly, they were all calle...
5 comments:

Fuzzy-Felt Dystopia, 1976

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A young girl was found wandering the streets of Scarfolk in 1976. She claimed that she had escaped from a secret school hidden beneath the t...
7 comments:
Thursday, 28 February 2013

Water Electrification, 1974

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This public information message was posted on walls around Scarfolk and published as a full-page ad in the local weekly newspaper, The Scarf...
4 comments:
Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Sex. Sex. Sex. 1978

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Nobody forgets school sex education lessons. Here's a page from a 1978 biology textbook taught in Scarfolk schools. Our biology teache...
5 comments:
Sunday, 24 February 2013

Scarfolk tourism poster 1972

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Despite the letter spacing typo on the poster, Scarfolk's 1972 tourism campaign was as successful as the mayor had hoped. Seven tourists...
5 comments:
Saturday, 23 February 2013

The 'Inoc-uous' vaccination machine

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Scarfolk primary school installed one of these Inoc-uous devices in the basement in 1974. The entire school's pupils queued up for their...
1 comment:
Thursday, 21 February 2013

The Children of Scarfolk Primary School - "In the Playground with the Music Room Window Open, May 13, 1975"

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Back in 1975 the children of Scarfolk primary school released their own 45rpm record to commemorate their music teacher Mrs Payne who disapp...
10 comments:

BBC's "We Watch You Watching Us"

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This 6 hour programme was made by BBC Scarfolk and only broadcast locally. Shown on Sunday evenings, it was made by the same production co...
2 comments:
Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Scarfolk Ice-Cream range, 1979

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In Scarfolk the ice-cream van man comes between 3 & 4am. You can hear him blaring the haunting Swedish Rhapsody numbers station* from o...
11 comments:
Monday, 18 February 2013

"Medium-sized illness" State healthcare in early 1970s Scarfolk

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The state healthcare system - the SHS (Scarfolk Health Service) - fiercely encourages people not to be sick. In 1974 there is a total budg...
5 comments:
Sunday, 17 February 2013

Sing-A-Long I.R.A Telephone Bomb Threats (BBC cassette,1976)

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Here in early 1970s Scarfolk, children's TV was on right before the evening news, so fun and games were constantly juxtaposed with '...
12 comments:
Saturday, 16 February 2013

"Let's Sing The Unspeakable Together" (1970)

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This is a page from a 1200 page book aimed at 4 to 6 year olds called " Let's Sing The Unspeakable Together." The aim of the...
1 comment:
Friday, 15 February 2013

"Learn to Swim. Don't become extinct" A public information poster from Scarfolk Council

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This 1972 poster was on my doctor's waiting room wall as well as the Scarfolk infant school noticeboard next to a poster about the dange...
3 comments:
Thursday, 14 February 2013

Children's weekly magazine "Look-In" from 1978

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Even children's magazines in Scarfolk left the reader uneasy and disquieted. All my copies of Look-In were hidden after 5pm so that I co...
1 comment:
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