Pop it on a Postcard

The fascination of an old postcard. Especially those that were written on and posted. You can look for the address…is it still there? How long did they live there? What was their life like?  You get the tiniest glimpse sometimes from the message.  Just maybe you could begin to craft a whole story from it.

A couple of years ago I went to a vintage toy fair at Doncaster Racecourse. I found a big box of postcards, all for a fiver. Oh the heavenly joy of going through them and reading them all. This was obviously a collection. I worked out that it had belonged to a lady that lived in Dawlish.  I got to know her quite well from the postcards that she had saved from family and friends. But there were some older ones that she must have bought or been given.

Here’s a couple:

A typically English postcard...a model village

Jalland Street is still there!  Google image it to see a row of middling-class terraced houses

Some scenes are a bit boring and unlabelled. No idea which church this is.

It's still there...slightly better class than Jalland Street, above.
Was sending postcards a purely middle-class activity?

 I’m selling a few on ebay…keeping the ones of special interest to me and then giving others the opportunity pick up some that may be of interest to them. It means that I got my fiver back, and have had tons of free geographical-based entertainment!

Have a look at the Dawlish lady's Scottish postcards. She liked Scotland.