Picture This…

Above: The Globe, Swanage. Erected in the 1890s

Above: Portland Prison's convicts in the quarries, 1907

Above: Poole Quay

Above: Paddle steamer PS Brodick Castle, seen here in Bournemouth in 1908

Above: The arrival of the Jersey Boat in Weymouth

Above: Lulworth Cove, c1906. The paddle steamer Victoria

‘Another card for your album,’ wrote ‘EJ’ on a postcard of the Globe at Swanage, which she sent to her friend Mrs Thornton in May 1908. ‘I hope you will like it.’ Although the picture postcard was only in its infancy at that time, the range of cards available was such that collecting was already a popular hobby. ‘The Globe, Swanage’, seen right, was just one card from an extensive series of views of the Dorset town.

A century ago, in the days before every home had a telephone, and at a time when the Post Office collected and delivered mail several times a day, the picture postcard was the equivalent of today’s text message – the quickest and most reliable way of making arrangements, contacting a friend, or just simply saying ‘I’m home safely’. Cards mailed at 10am often carried the simple message ‘See you tonight at 7’ or something similar. At a halfpenny for a simple black-and-white card – and often as little as an old penny for a coloured view – and a halfpenny to post it, the postcard was the communication medium for everyman.

With hundreds of cards to choose from, the sender could pick one to suit a mood, an occasion, or a memory. In addition to the expected range of scenic cards – and a vastly wider range than any town or city can offer today – every stationer sold humorous postcards, romantic ones, cards which told stories, included the words of songs, and a hundred other varieties.

Quality Items...

Many of the best tinted cards were produced in Saxony and Bavaria, where colour-lithographic printing was of a much higher standard and a much lower cost than could be found in most British printing establishments. German cards were, therefore, considered to be ‘quality’ items! All that changed with the advent of the Great War, of course. For the duration of the war, the purchase of remaining stock of pre-1914 cards which bore the legend ‘Printed in Bavaria’ was positively frowned upon as being unpatriotic – with these beautiful productions going from ‘must have’ to ‘must not have’ almost overnight! Perhaps that is why so many of them have found their way into collections today without ever having been written on or posted.

Reliable figures about just how many postcards were mailed annually in Britain in the early years of the last century are unavailable, but it ran into hundreds of millions. And in stark contrast to the bland postcards generally available today, the Edwardians could choose from a varied and interesting range of lively and contemporary cards in just about every town and village. Of course, there were a lot of bland ones as well, but there was sufficient choice to ensure that if you were contacting a friend several times a month, then the chances of duplicating a card could be minimised!

Whereas today’s seaside or coastal postcard market is aimed squarely at the tourist, whether holidaymaker or casual day visitor, Edwardian cards were aimed just as directly, if not more so, at the residents – those who lived and worked in the large seaside towns, the industrial towns and ports, and the small fishing villages. And whereas today’s cards use photographs which exclude anything which might date them and limit their longevity, Edwardian cards revelled in showing local people going about their daily lives, visitors enjoying the pleasures of the seaside, and workers practicing their trades and professions. An obvious aid to sales – who could have resisted buying a number of cards in which they featured prominently?

Granting permission...

Well, perhaps not everyone would have been quite so happy – the convicts at Portland Prison being searched after returning from work became the subject of a 1904 postcard, while throughout the decade cards were available showing prisoners at work breaking rocks and working in the island’s quarries. In today’s litigious world, one assumes the postcard publishers would never have been allowed to publish such cards without written ‘release forms’ from the inmates granting permission! But in those simpler days, the convicts probably had no say in the matter. The 1987 Copyright Act which extended its remit to protect a person’s ‘image rights’ was still some 80 years in the future! Perhaps just as surprising is the number in which such cards sold, and the variety of prison-related cards which were available.

In Bridport, workers on the looms at Joseph Gundry’s net-making factory presumably did give their permission, and happily appeared on postcards before 1906, presumably making sure they used ‘their’ cards when contacting their friends.

Thanks to postcard collecting – already a popular and well-established worldwide hobby by the end of the Edwardian era – the many postcards which have been handed down to us today tell a rich story of Edwardian life. They bring history alive, vividly draw a century’s change to our attention, and give us a glimpse of a time and a lifestyle so different from our own that it seems much more than a century ago.

As we sail out of Poole Harbour to France aboard Barfleur, it may not be hard to envisage the quayside a century ago stacked high with timber – it frequently still is today – but it is certainly not easy to imagine that quayside flanked by a line of sailing ships as it was in 1904, and would have been for centuries before that.

At nearby Bournemouth – at the height of its popularity in the Edwardian era – the choice of postcards ran into well over a hundred! And the messages on these cards tell us a great deal about the richness of the experience. One sender, signed simply ‘N’, wrote to her friend Mrs Donald in Carlisle that: ‘Everything is very delightful except the weather, and it is still cold. The band is first rate, and tomorrow Pachmann plays.’ 

The Golden Age of Postcards...

Vladimir de Pachmann was a celebrated, if rather eccentric, pianist, with a considerable reputation for his interpretation of Chopin. He was one of the first pianists to record his works – first for the piano roll and then, from 1907, for the gramophone. If ‘N’ enjoyed the performance on 15th May 1910, she was luckier than those who booked tickets for his return performance two months later as part of the town’s centenary celebrations in early July – according to the report in The Musical Times of 1st August, he called off ill at the last minute!

Steamers operated by Richard Cosens of Weymouth regularly connected Bournemouth with Weymouth, Swanage and other piers and jetties along the south coast, and with ports on the north coast of France. Cosens had recognised that the arrival of the railway in 1870 would herald a new era, and a new class of visitor – the day tripper – who would find the idea of a short coastal trip on a steamer an attractive proposition. His vision proved correct, and in addition to his own ships, steamers from several rival companies regularly visited the pier. The steamers PS Bournemouth Queen, PS Balmoral, and PS Stirling Castle all regularly sailed to and from Bournemouth. So it is not surprising that a number of Bournemouth’s postcards showed steamers arriving at the pier or departing heavily laden with passengers.

For the adventurous, a sail from Weymouth to Lulworth Cove involved ‘walking the plank’ from the front of the paddle steamer down to a rickety jetty or just on to the beach. Having safely mastered that ordeal, what better way to remember the experience than to buy a postcard of holidaymakers leaving the ship – and every steamer offered postcards for sale.

This was the golden age of the picture postcard, but one which did not last long. The increasing popularity of illustrated newspaper and then illustrated magazines – and the onset of a devastating World War – impacted considerably on the postcard market, and after peace returned, the range of cards available never again achieved the rich variety available to the Edwardians.

Several of the pictures in this feature appear, in colour, in John Hannavy’s book Britain’s Working Coast in Victorian and Edwardian Times, published by Shire, and priced £9.99.