Sepia Saturday 187 - churches

I don't have anything biblical to share for this week's Sepia Saturday, but I have stayed on the theological theme with some vintage postcards of churches. Rather than go for the more well known churches in big towns and cities, I have instead opted for a few smaller, almost certainly less familiar ones. Admittedly I did not do a huge amount of research for this posting, but something I did discover on my travels through hyperspace, was that John Betjeman had a love of churches as well as trains. I have several of his books on the latter but none on the former - perhaps it's time to put this right.

Vintage postcard of Clayton Church, Sussex, c.1907

Vintage postcard of Culbone Church, Minehead, Somerset

Vintage postcard of Hollington, the Church in the Wood, Sussex

Vintage postcard of Sompting Church, Sussex, c.1917

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

    

Sepia Saturday 183 - vintage postcards of caves

Looks as though it's going to be a warm day today, which will make a pleasant change, so I will be off out on my bike shortly, but still time to share some vintage postcards for this week's Sepia Saturday. I actually had quite a few cave postcards to choose from, so have taken one from each location.

Vintage postcard of Reynard's Cave, Dovedale, Derbyshire, published by Raphael Tuck

Vintage postcard of Tilly Whim Caves, Swanage, Dorset

Vintage postcard of the Fairy Grotto, Cheddar Caves, Somerset

Vintage postcard of St. Clements Caves, Hastings, Sussex

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

    

Artist drawn, vintage postcards of Suffolk, Sussex and Yorkshire

Over the past few weeks I have picked up some artist drawn, vintage postcards by artists that I've either not come across before, or who are uncredited on the postcards. Given the long, bank holiday weekend, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a few of them here.

Vintage postcard of Ye Olde Neptune Inn, Ipswich, Suffolk, by the artist Parsons-Norman

Vintage postcard of Petergate, York, by the artist T.Guy

Vintage postcard of The Land Gate, Rye, Sussex, by the artist W.H.Burrow

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

And if you like this blog, how about popping over to have a look at my vintage magazines blog or my In Search of Space blog ... the latter is probably my most active blog at the moment and it charts my urban wanderings through London, inspired by some recent psychogeography reads.

 

Sepia Saturday 160 - vintage postcards of piers

Thanks for the suggestion of piers as an option for this week's Sepia Saturday. I would have been struggling to stay on theme otherwise. Unsurprisingly piers do feature quite frequently on vintage postcards, or any postcards for that matter, so I had quite a few to choose from. These are some of my favourites and they vary from the very basic Eastham pier, to the grand piers of Brighton and Blackpool, and a few that fit in between.

Vintage postcard of Eastham Pier, Lancashire

Vintage postcard of North Pier, Blackpool, Lancashire, c.1938

Vintage postcard of Palace Pier, Brighton, Sussex

Vintage postcard of the pier, Skegness, Lincolnshire

Vintage postcard of Clarence Pier and Esplanade, Southsea, Hampshire

Vintage postcard of the Central Pier, Morecombe, Lancashire, c.1905

Many more vintage postcards can be found in my online shop

    

Postcard Friendship Friday 121 - red, white and blue

Just about time during the half-time interval of the latest Euro 2012 football match to submit a post for this week's Postcard Friendship Friday. Taking the red, white and blue theme, I have dug out this heraldic, vintage postcard of Hastings, Sussex, which contains a red, white and blue coat of arms. I particularly like all the people promenading in their Sunday best, and also the bandstand. We visited Hastings last year but I don't remember the bandstand being there still - maybe I'm wrong though - I hope so.

Vintage postcard of Hastings, Sussex, c.1905

More vintage postcards of Sussex can be found on my web site

    

Sepia Saturday 122 - Gardening

I have several vintage postcards of gardens that would fit this week's Sepia Saturday theme but after much deliberation I chose this one because it's the only one I have which also includes a gardener. Having said that however, this gardener seems to be standing back and admiring his handiwork rather than being in the action of gardening per-se. The postcard is a Raphael Tuck oilette, features the Parade Gardens, Eastbourne, Sussex, and dates back to the early 1900's.

Eastbourne Parade Gardens, Sussex

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

    

Vintage postcards of war memorials

Following on from Beth's post on Armed Forces Day for Postcard Friendship Friday #54, I have found a handful of war memorial postcards in my collection to continue with the theme.

Folkestone, Kent - War Memorial

Leicester - War Memorial

Brighton, Sussex - War Memorial

Scarborough, Yorkshire - War Memorial

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

Theme Thursday - Point

A bit late this week as I've been away, but here is one of my all time favourite vintage postcards which fits the this week's Theme Thursday 'point' theme. It's called 'Splash Point' and can be found in Eastbourne, Sussex.

Splash Point, Sussex, c.1904

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

Moonlit vintage postcard of Brighton

I've always enjoyed moonlit postcards, and blogged about them a few months ago. I recently came across this fantastic one of Brighton which makes a nice addition to my collection.

The Beach, Brighton

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, and also my new(ish) In Search of Space blog may be of interest

Sepia Saturday 56 - Chichester ... oops, I mean Canterbury

This is a very curious vintage postcard. It's actually of Canterbury Cathedral, but the postcard has been printed with the words Chichester Cathedral instead. I probably would not have noticed this mistake myself unless someone had crossed out Chichester and replaced in with Canterbury. And just to double check myself, I searched out a vintage postcard of each and, as you can see, they look very different. The postcard with the erroneous title was printed by Valentine - I wonder how many of these they printed up before they noticed the error? Maybe I have a real rarity here.

Canterbury Cathedral masquerading as Chichester Cathedral

 Canterbury Cathedral

Chichester Cathedral (the real one)

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

 

Vintage postcards of Chanctonbury Ring, Sussex

Having recently stumbled across these 2 wonderful vintage postcards of Chanctonbury Ring in Sussex, it's become yet another place to add to my "to be visited" list. Chanctonbury Ring is a hill fort and artifacts found there suggest it was constructed around the 6th or 5th century BC. Various legends surround the ring, including increasing fertility and summoning the devil ... might be tricky though if bits of those rituals get mixed up !! Both postcards are published by J.Salmon Ltd., and although have no artist name or initials on the cards, they do look very like something that A.R.Quinton might have painted - anyone know for sure?

Chanctonbury Ring, Wiston Pond, South Downs

Chanctonbury Ring and Dew Pond

As always, loads more vintage postcards on my web site

Sepia landscapes on vintage postcards

This week's Sepia Saturday post features landscapes rather than towns. I always find postcards published by Judges a little 'ordinary' compared to publishers like Raphael Tuck. They sometimes appear to lack depth and focus. Whether this is caused by the production methods at the time or just aging I'm not sure. However, I did select a handful of vintage postcards by Judges to share this week, and these ones seem to have scanned in ok, and infact I think the picture quality may have even been enhanced by the scanning process (or I may be imagining that).

The postcard of Rhossilli is easily may favourite for two reasons. Firstly as I love the view, and secondly I spnet a lot of time their in my youth on family holidays and then later as a student.

Rhossilli, Worm's Head, South Wales, published by Judges, number 12139

East Hill, Hastings, Sussex, Judges postcard, number 59

Whitby evening, Yorkshire, published by Judges, number 12857

Tor Hill, Glastonbury, Somerset, published by Judges, number 18239

As always, 100's of vintage postcards like these, and other assorted vintage items such as books and magazines, can be found on my vintage postcards web site

Pavilions from across the UK

Today's vintage blog post covers the subject of Pavilions. Over the years I seem to have collected quite a few pavilions on postcards, a handful of which I'll share below. From my research it's good to see that many are still in use today, albeit serving different purposes than originally intended ... the concert hall has indeed been replaced by the shopping centre.

De La Warr Pavilion and Colonade, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, c.1956

The De La Warr Pavilion is one of the UK's earliest buildings to be built in the Modernist style. It was commissioned in 1935 by the 9th Earl De La Warr using the architects Serge Chermayeff and Erich Mendelsohn.

The Pavilion by Night, Brighton, Sussex, c.1933

The Pavilion in Brighton, also referred to as the Royal Pavilion, was built at the beginning of the 19th century for George IV, then Prince Regent, and frequented by Regency society

The Pavilion, Victoria Park, Leicester

I think this is the 'original' Leicester Pavilion which was damaged during the war and later reconstructed.

Promenade and Pavilion, Llandudno, Wales

Opened in 1886, surviving until 1994 when it was largely destroyed by vandalism followed by a fire. Originally popular as a Victorian holiday attraction, and later as a venue for political conferences, where allegedly one Margaret Thatcher set her mind on a career in politics.

The Pavilion, Torquay, Devon, c.1914

Opened in 1912 as a concert hall. Concerts were held in the pavilion until 1976. Alas it's now a shopping centre, but at least it's still standing.

The Pavilion, Ramsgate, Kent, c.1910

The Ramsgate Pavilion was opened in 1904 by one of Queen Victoria's daughters. It's now a casino.

The Pier, Bandstand and White Rock, Pavilion, Hastings, Sussex, c.1954

Built in 1927 for concerts and theatre performances. Still in use today.


Check out my web site for these and other vintage postcards

Vintage postcards of English counties

It was only recently when my English counties vintage postcards web page was getting too big and I was giving some of the English counties their own web page, that I realised there were a handful of English counties of which I've only ever had only 3 or 4 postcards, and in some cases just 1 or 2. Those where I seem to have the most postcards are Devon, Sussex, London, Yorkshire and Kent, whereas in contrast I have only ever come across 3 or 4 from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Nottinghamshire, and as far as I can tell I've only ever had one from Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire. My assumption is that the more prolific counties were those with a tourist or cultural interest, e.g. seaside towns, historic buildings and monuments, etc. So, a rather long-winded introduction, but today's blog entry is dedicated to those counties from which I have only ever found a small number of vintage postcards.

Pavilion, Victoria Park, Leicester, Leicestershire, c.1911 - 1930

Wingrave Church, Buckinghamshire

Bedford, a Peep on the Ouse, c.1904

Nottingham University and lake, c.1956


You'll find hundreds more vintage postcards on my web site

Vintage postcards of Brighton

Given the popularity of Brighton as a seaside resort in the Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian eras, it not surprising it generated are 1000's of postcards. Whilst many are relatively ordinary, featuring perhaps the pavilion or the rockery, every so often I come across one or two which don't quite fit that mould. I'm, sharing a few of these below.

The Dome, Brighton, c.1910

King's Road, Brighton, c.1925

Palace Pier, Brighton, c.1910

Loads more vintage postcards on my web site