"There is never-never land hidden away besides the railway embankment between New Malden and Surbiton, and within sight and hearing of the main Kingston Road," wrote the Surrey Comet of July 27, 1929.

"It is the home of people of whom everybody knows and nobody has met; whom everybody has spoken about, yet no one has spoken to. The people are as famous as cabinet ministers and as real as characters in Dickens. But in life they have never existed. They speak to us, but their lips do not move, nor do they have voices. They are models of constancy and emblems of progress, yet they have no feelings," the report continued in equally enigmatic prose.

So what was this never-never land? Who were these strange, tight-lipped fellows? Why were the Comet staff of the time writing riddles instead of news? Were they drinking too much?

While the answer to the latter seems open to debate, the mystical land so colourfully described was Pytram Ltd, in Dunbar Road, a manufacturer of papier mache models made to order for national firms. Before the days of TV, the internet and other modern forms of advertising, it appears papier mache was the promotional tool of choice and New Malden's Pytram Ltd was an industry leading light.

The reporter was writing one in a series of reports on successful local businesses and proceeded to describe a tour around the Pytram factory in an equally bizarre fashion.

But before he came to the tour itself, he went on for several hundred more words about these people who "have no life, yet signify much that means life to the civilised world, who, in character, are open-hearted for all to know, but in truth they are hollow".

Later, while describing the tour, which took in rooms of terrifying half-completed dummies resembling skeletons, there was a surprisingly risqu passage about the reporter's confusion over what turned out to be a banana adorning an unpainted humanoid figure.

He also described seeing His Master's Voice (HMV) terrier, which was produced at the firm, positioned with "hundreds of other little friends", awaiting delivery in Pytram's storeroom.

Sadly, after extensive research, it appears the papier mache model business is not what it was and Pytram can no longer be found in Dunbar Road and may have gone out of business.

If you know what happened to the firm contact the Surrey Comet.

djudge@london.newsquest.co.uk