Wish you were here! ;-)

I think that Katherine Sorrell's article in this month's 'Homes and Antiques', 

makes fascinating reading!

It seems that the Edwardian age was the golden age 

of the picture postcard, with various postcard companies offering

 over 40,000 different picture postcards by 1900.

And of course,woven postcards became popular during World War 1:

Well, my mum has a fine collection of postcards and her box of postcards

is of great fascination to me!

So, yesterday, I borrowed it..again!

Here are some rare finds... above is Holy Island.

London scenes , above and below.

This one, below, is of The Quay, Minehead.

On the back of the card it says:

'Copyright. Printed and published by J.Salmon, Sevenoaks, England

From an original watercolour drawing by A.R.Quinton

Chepstow was where my mum was born

and so I wasn't surprised to find this postcard, below, in her collection.

The postcards below contain scenes from Crieff.

Three of these cards were produced by Valentines

but the postcard in the right hand, bottom corner,

which contains a scene of The Macrosty Park, Crieff,

has a printed message on it which reads:

'Let us strive without failing in faith or duty' - The Prime Minister.

I believe these to be the words of Sir Winston Churchill.

How about that then?!!!

The above postcard has a handwritten note on the reverse,

wishing someone a, 'Hope you feel better' message.

It's addressed to a lady at Newton Abbot hospital

and the postmark is, St Ives, 1930.

No doubt that cheered up the recipient, who was also sent the postcard below

but not by the same person!

Below is the coastguard station at Padstow.

I don't know if that still exists?!

I was quite surprised to find that anyone would produce a postcard of Kingskerswell.

(Kingskerswell is situated between Newton Abbot and Torquay

and one usually gets stuck in traffic here...but not for much longer

as the long awaited Kingskerswell by-pass was approved, very recently)

 I would guess that it is in my mum's collection

because there, in the middle of the picture, is my grandma and grandad's

bungalow, in which they lived during the 1960s.

And talking of my grandma...she came from Gloucester and

my mum has often told me that she loved Gloucester Cathedral (above).

Here's an old Frith postcard of Watchet

I might've known that Francis Frith would feature somewhere

in this box of postcards, as he was, and still is, pretty famous

for his photographs.

Now look who has popped up!

This is an old black and white, souvenir letter card

sending 'Greetings from Torquay'.

And here, below, we have the famous Cockington.

Well, I too have a drawer, full of postcards!

I especially love the old county 'map' postcards

And I'm rather partial to postcards of my own county of Devon :

Cockington... again!!

And below is one which has featured on this blog, once before.

I couldn't ignore this postcard of Clovelly as it is so lovely!

Finally....

This one, of my home town, Newton Abbot.

Well actually, that is incorrect. 

It's Newton Bushel

 (because Newton Abbot was once, long ago, in two parts)

and this was painted in1810 by G.Sheperd.

This painting hangs in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford!

If you live in Newton Abbot  but are not sure where this is

....it's looking down Highweek street with Wolborough Hill

in the distance.

Magazines can inspire!

If I hadn't read that article , you probably wouldn't be reading this!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

;-)