Sepia Saturday 224 - gardens

As the weather is awful here today, I have no desire or feeling of guilt that I should be outside working on my own garden, so do actually have some time to dig out a few vintage postcards for this week's Sepia Saturday. Sadly I have no pictures of watering cans, but I do have plenty of gardens.

Vintage postcard of Valley Gardens, Harrogate, Yorkshire

Vintage postcard of the Great Palm House, Kew Gardens

Vintage postcard of Canbury Gardens, Kingston-on-Thames

Vintage postcard of Bishop's Road Gardens, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

As usual 100's more vintage postcards can be found 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 149 - Spa

Another late Sepia Saturday posting from me again this week, but I have a good excuse in that I was out making the most of the autumn leaves. I was really struggling with the theme until I spotted Kat's mention of the word "spa" which rescued me from going off theme. So, without further ado, here are a few vintage postcards of various spa towns in the UK.

Spa from the pier, Bridlington, Yorkshire

Royal Pump Rooms, Lower Parade, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

Scarborough Spa, Promenade and Bay, Yorkshire

The Spa, Scarborough, Yorkshire

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

    

Theme Thursday - Treasure

I had hoped to find something a bit mork sparkly, and a bit more inspiratinnal than this, but I'm pushed for time today so I'm afraid this will have to suffice for thie week's Theme Thursday. This is a real photographic, vintage postcard of the Treasurer's House in York, c.1949, and was published by Photochrom, number 71238.

A quick bit of research revelaed that this was the first property to be given to the National Trust, it has a 2,000 year history, has a sunken garden, and is abound with ghost stories. I think perhaps the rather sombre looking postcard may not do it justice.

Treasurer's House, York, c.1949

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site ... and finally I've started adding some of my 300+ that I acquired in September, so if you've not visited for a while you may find something new.

    

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

Vintage postcard of Barnsley Cemetery, c.1908

I've been on holiday for the past week up in the wonderful Peak District, so apologies but my postcard blog entries this weekend will be brief, but hopefully still enjoyable. This is a postcard I thought I had already blogged but it would seem not. It's from 1908 and is of Barnsley Cemetery in Yorkshire. The architecture looks as though it came straight out of a Harry Potter film or PC game ... and the symmetry is incredible, although if you look closely there are subtle differences.

Barnsley Cemetery, Yorkshire, c.1908

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

A bit tatty but loved nevertheless

Well given the title of this post, I could be talking about many different things, perhaps also including myself. However today's blog update is dedicated to what I refer to as my 'tatty pile'. This is a pile of vintage postcards which are typically not good enough quality to make it on to my web pages, but are worth keeping hold of nevertheless.

The first postcard is a street scene in Skegness. What I love about this postcard is the detail of the shops ... and the fact that it's car-free.

Lumley Road, Skegness, c.1912

This next postcard is of Manchester Road in Burnley. What's slightly odd about this postcard is that the dimensions and perspective seem a bit out of sync, but that adds to the overall charm.

Manchester Road, Burnley

And finally for this post, here's a postcard of Port Sunlight. By the sound of the name you might think it's somewhere in the Caribbean, but in fact it's a historic village in the Wirral. The village was the dream child of William Hesketh Lever who recognised the importance of a happy and health workforce for the success of his soap business.

 Lever Free Library and Museum, Port Sunlight

As usual 100's more vintage postcards on my web site, including a new batch uploaded this week.

Vintage postcard of Elsecar - Sepia Saturday 54

When I was looking through my vintage postcards for something sepia that I'd not yet blogged about, this one leapt out at me. As this postcard is of Yorkshire, I'm more than sure that Alan can tell us all loads more about it, but again for me the location is somewhere I've only ever visited via vintage postcard.

Real photographic, vintage postcard of Church Street, Elsecar, South Yorkshire

100's more vintage postcards on my web site as well as my vintage postcard advent calendar

Vintage postcards of ships and docks

Just a short blog update today as too many other things going on. I came across these 2 vintage postcards very recently and what struck me was that actually I don't have many others like these. Typically I tend to pick up topographical postcards, greeting postcards, and occasionally ones with people on them. I would guess Buccleuch Dock looks very different today and that following the decline of the Britsh shipping industry spent a period in a run-down condition and has been recently rennovated as a modern waterfront development. Anyone know?

I'm intrigued about the 2nd one as I can't seem to find out any information about the ship. I assume it's a cargo vessel of some sort as I can see no port holes suggesting it might be a passenger ship, are no suggestions of military use either. I think the writing on the face of the postcard says "W.A.R. Co 32-8" but do not know whether this relates to the ship company, ship class, or the postcard manufacturer. Again, does anyone know this?

Buccleuch Docks, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria

W.A.R. Co. 32-8, Goole Docks, Yorkshire

As always, 100's more vintage postcards on my vintage postcards 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

Vintage Postcards - Church Parade

Until this week I thought that the vintage postcard I had of Church Parade in Scarborough, Yorkshire, was simply the name of the road shown on the postcard. However, on finding another postcard of Church Parade, this time from Ilfracombe in Devon, I decided to take a closer look at the postcards. I guess if I'd have spent any meaningful time studying the original postcard in more detail I would probably have realised this, but clearly they are actually of a church parade. Each postcard shows hundreds of people in their "Sunday Best".

Church Parade, Scarborough, Yorkshire, c.1907

Church Parade, Capstone, Ilfracombe, Devon

As always, hundreds of vintage postcards for sale can be found on my web site