AS a reader today, if you saw an advert urging you not to let your child die, you would certainly sit up and take notice.

Adverts in the Kent Messenger in the 21st century are heavily regulated by a number of acts of parliament, and by guidelines from the Advertising Standards Authority and the Newspaper Society, so that outrageous claims, which cannot be substantiated, are not published in the paper.

In the 19th century, however, there were few rules or guidelines governing what advertisers claimed.

A back page advert in the Maidstone Telegraph and West Kent Messenger in 1862, for instance, declared: “Do Not Let Your Child Die.”

The advert, which claimed that the miraculous Fennings’ Children’s Powders could cure fevers, thrush, colds and eruptions, quoted one testimonial saying: “I would rather be without food in the house than your Children’s Powders.”

Many of the adverts from yesteryear give us a flavour of what life was like for working people. The first editions of the Maidstone Telegraph contained adverts for boot and shoe makers; trusses “of the best description” from E Vinson’s of 8 & 9 Middle Row, Maidstone, at 5s (25p) each, and even barges for sale.

John Ramsay Cooper of High Street, Maidstone, also advertised elastic stockings, for people with varicose veins.

In March 1914, one advert urged women: “Warning to Maidstone Housewives The Importance of Genuine Wholemeal Bread – The Name Allinson is your guarantee but only from these bakers.”

By 1878, the front page of the paper was taken up with appeals for situations vacant, which show us the kind of employment on offer for people of the day.

Employers (and employees) were looking for wheelwrights, carpenters, servants, governesses, blacksmiths, butchers and millers, to name but a few.

They would have been well-read, as the file copies held by the Kent Messenger Group at its headquarters in Larkfield testify, with many ticked off adverts by a reader at the time.

Adverts in the Kent Messenger were more advanced than much of the news coverage, as progress saw pictures being used. In January 1895, pictures were being used in adverts, when news coverage did not regularly include photographs until the First World War.