Manchester nightclub launches hunt to find owner of 1980s wallet found behind radiator

Its contents provide an insight to life as a teen three decades ago

Sarah Jones
Thursday 05 October 2017 07:14 EDT
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The teenager lost her wallet at the club in the mid-80s
The teenager lost her wallet at the club in the mid-80s (Warrington Guardian / SWNS)

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A nightclub is attempting to reunite a woman with the wallet she lost there more than 30 years ago - which is like a time capsule of life in the era.

In the midst of a refurbishment at the Ritz in Manchester, workers discovered a brown leather wallet behind a radiator, and what was inside surprised them.

Owned by teenager Elizabeth Sarah Dale, its contents reveal the wallet had in fact been there since the mid-1980s and serve as a fascinating reminder of how much has changed in three decades.

The photo ID shows a smiling young woman with shoulder-length hair wearing a button-up jacket.

Inside, there’s also a Cheshire Libraries and Museums card, a University of Manchester Whitworth Park Residents' Association card from 1985/86, a Midland Bank cheque card, a payslip and 12p in change.

Now bosses at the Ritz are appealing for information about Elizabeth who lived on Village Close in Thelwall, Warrington, Chesire, and would now be around 50 years old, with the hope of reuniting her with her misplaced possessions.

“We were clearing out the other day because we're having a refurb in the offices, and it had fallen down the back of a radiator - it must have been lodged there since god knows when,” said Chirs Mann, bar manager at the Ritz.

”She would maybe have been about 18 or 19 back then, so she might be in her early 50s now.

“It's coming up to our 90th birthday but this wallet has been here for about 30 years, so we just figured it might be nice to reunite it with its owner.

”We want to have a chat with them to find out more about what they were doing in the Ritz and whether they actually remember it.“

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