Sepia Saturday 120 - Library

Although I felt like I should rise to Alan's challenge of midget submarines for this week's Sepia Saturday I opted for the easier option of library. I think I may have posted at least one of these before, but as they fit the theme I thought no harm in showing them again.

Cambridge University Library

Cambridge, St. John's College Library

Oxford, Oriel College Library

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Cambridge University

Not wanting Cambridge University to feel left out after my post last week about Oxford University, I've decided to share a few vintage postcards of the insides of some of the Cambridge colleges. I have posted about Cambridge colleges before but don't think I included these ones.

Cambridge, St. John's College library, published by Frith

Cambridge University Library

Cambridge, Kings College chapel

More vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sepia Saturday 75: Oxford University

Having quite a few vintage postcards of Oxford, I was able to be a "themer" again this week on Sepia Saturday, and was almost spoilt for choice as to which ones to include, so I've taken another detail from the theme ... inside at Oxford University colleges. The only thing missing from my postcards is people, which is a bit of a shame as the images look a little sterile.

Oxford, Oriel College library, published by Frith

Oxford, Magdalen College cloisters, published by Penrose and Palmer

Oxford, Jesus College, dining hall, published by Frith

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sepia Saturday 59 - Rupert Brooke and the Archers

Searching for something for this week's Sepia Saturday, I came across this sepia postcard. Initially I didn't think it was anything special, but a little digging revealed that it was in fact the former house of Rupert Brooke, the war poet. It's here that I must confess my ignorance in that I'd never heard of him (we read Wilfred Owen at school though and I still remember some of the lines of All Quiet on the Western Front, but Brooke was a new name to me). The house is the Old Vicarage in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, and is now occupied by Lord and Lady Archer.

Vintage postcard of the Old Vicarage, Granchester, Cambridgeshire, published by Frith

Something which also struck me as interesting about this postcard was the slogan on the back which reads 'T.N.T - Today Not Tomorrow - The Minister of Production' . The Ministry of Production was formed in 1942 to bridge the gap and coordinate between various other government departments including the Admiralty, Ministry of Supply, Ministry of Aircraft Production and the Ministry of Labour and National Service, basically making sure that demand and supply were coordinated.

Back of postcard showing the T.N.T slogan

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

Theme Thursday - Fence

 A very short Theme Thursday entry this week as I've been crazily busy at work. Going through my various photographs, cards, postcards and magazines (at admittedly fairly high speed) these were the only ones which really seemed to fit the subject, but to be homest they are nowhere near as good as most of the other entries I've seen. Hopefully next week will find me with more time and creative energy.

 

Windsor Great Park, Long Walk

Windsor, Long Walk and Statue

As always, 100's more vintage postcards can be found on my vintage postcards web site

Vintage Postcards for Sepia Saturday

For my Sepia Saturday post this week, I can't claim to be intimately familiar with any of these places but felt these sepia vintage postcards of various English towns were worth sharing. What's interesting is that the degree of "sepia-ness" (pretty sure that's not a word) varies between cards. The first and last postcard are published by Frith, and "very sepia" whereas the two published by Photochrom are still sepia but very much less so, and the one published by Judges is somewhere between the others.

Of the postcards below, I suspect the ones of Penshurst and Lower Slaughter are the least changed today, whereas I suspect the ones of Windsor and Ross-on-Wye are almost certainly blighted by traffic.

Market House, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, published by Frith

Lower Slaughter, the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, published by Photochrom

Penshurst, Kent, published by Judges

The Embankment from the Town Bridge, Bedford, published by Photochrom

High Street and Parish Church, Windsor, Berkshire, published by Frith

Hundreds more vintage postcards on my web site

Zig-zag paths

A slightly unusual vintage postcard topic being shared today ... that of 'zig zag' paths. Again this was something like my Church Parade vintage postcard finds which I assumed were a one-off, but I now have at least 3 zig-zag path vintage postcards of different locations. Thinking about it a bit more, I guess that zig-zag paths are not uncommon ways of negotiating one's way down a steep hill or cliff, but are not perhaps something I would ever imagine appearing on a postcard. Interestingly, all 3 postcards have a pier in the background, so perhaps the view from the zig-path was just another take of a pier postcard.

The Zig-Zag, West Cliff, Cromer, Norfolk, c.1958, by the artist C.T.Howard, published by J.Salmon Ltd., number 4227.

View from Zig-zag path, Bournemouth, Dorset, published by Frith

Zig zag paths, Folkestone, Kent, c.1925, published by Valentine, number 86819

I think my favourite one is probably the one of Folkestone, with all the people in their Sunday best takiing their Sunady promenade or holiday walk.

As always, hundreds of vintage postcards like these can be found on my vintage postcards web site

Vintage postcards of pools

I'm not talking about swimming pools, or outdoor bathing pools (although I do have some postcards covering those areas as well). What I'm referring to here are probably best described as small lakes, some inland and freshwater, some tidal.

The first one is a Harvey Barton postcard of The Blue Pool, near Wareham in Dorset. Lovely colours but clearly heavily tinted or 'colourised'. It's postally unused so no idea of date.

The second one is a Frith postcard of The Silent Pool, Shere, Surrey. This one is postally used and was posted from Guildford to Basingstoke on 16th April 1906. The greeting in the card reads "Arrived safe - went to Silent Pool Friday, went to Jack's yesterday, and hope to go to Godalming today, so you see have been very busy. All well here."