CATtitude

The postcard says on the back "boomerang will print and distribute students' artwork for free. There follows the contact details

The Great Fire - Leicester

This postcard of the Great Fire, St Georges, Leicester, October 5th 1911, was posted shortly after the Great Fire to Co Cork, Ireland.

On the back it says "Taken from top of Fire Station - 20 minutes exposure."

Julia Sawalha Look-a-like

Above is a picture of Julia Sawalha, a well know actress, at least in the UK, and below a picture of a young lady, unknown to me at least, who has a similarity to Julia.

Who knows, in her day, she too may have been very well known ...

but all I know is that she is a postcard.

Transformation of a Cave

Cox's Cave is in Cheddar Gorge on the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It became a show cave soon after it's discovery in 1837, and is named after the owner George Cox. An opening was cut to allow early vistors access. Further work allowed lots of visitors to visit.

Initially the interior was lit by candles, then by gas. By the time of this Frith Postcard it was the wonder of electric lighting gave such unwavering clarity.

Woman with Dog

I was in a junk shop on Saturday, and quickly flicked through a box of about 500 postcards and selected this one. I cannot say why. Maybe it was the dog.

Used as a Bookmark

I have cycled past, and run past, and walked past this old barn thousands of times. I didn't know I still had the postcard until it turned up inside a book I have not looked at for some years - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy - a book I never could finish.

Back to the postcard: something strange has happened to the barn at Ridge Green Farm, South Nutfield. It looks as though it is fading.

Horton Asylum, Epsom

Horton Asylum, Epsom, was built around 1900 and closed a hundred years later.

It became a military hospital during the two world wars and the patients transferred to other asylums.

I believe that in the days before penicillin the hospital had a unit that specialised in treating general paralysis of the insane - caused by syphilis - by infecting patients with malaria. The idea was that the resulting fever helped kill the disease.

Out of small acorns...

He may look young - lacking the gravitas and stature of a great statesman.

He has neither the eloquence of Blair or the confidence of Cameron.

But we will see how he develops.

"Out of small acorns...".

Stop Children Smoking

This is a Not For Sale postcard from the NHS (National Health Service). It was when the anti-smoking campaign rounded on passive smoking and now you cannot smoke in pubs, clubs, and restaurants.

The message of this card from a few years ago is 'If you smoke around children, they smoke too... Every year, thousands of children have to go to hospital because of breathing other people's cigarette smoke.'

Lemons

The comment on the front says 'The lemons grow like this right where our mail box is at the corner of Rosetta and Franklin Streets.' It's from Arthur C Line, one of my relatives on my mother's side, to his sister, Ethel, back in England. Arthur was staying in Los Angeles / Hollywood at the start of spring 1907. (But I cannot find the exact location using Google Maps. There are Franklin Streets, and a Rosetta Drive but no coming together of Rosetta & Franklin)

Monsieur Auguste, il avait une grosse chagrin

This postcard was sent in 1903. The majority of my old postcards come from the years 1903 - 1906 ish. During those years people liked to collect postcards and keep them in large albums, and many got preserved. Those were the days before telephones when things were heating up, people were travelling more, and postcards were a way of sending quick messages back home..

Monsieur Auguste and his sadness will not not forgotten.

HMS Abingdon

A WWI picture of a French lady outside a bar - wearing an HMS Abingdon Uniform. HMS Abingdon was a minesweeper in Royal Navy service from WW I. During WW II she got badly damaged by Italian Aircraft. She was beached and abandoned after being declared a total loss and broken up in 1950.

Barley and Hops - 1906

This German postcard from 1906 has a Still Life of two ingedients: Hops and Barley, two important ingredients in Beer.

We made it to Oban!

We made it to Oban and are so proud to have got so far north. It is not as far north as John o Groats but here in Oban 9.4% of the population speak Gaelic. Can John o Groats boast as many?

Chartham Asylum demolished by Wilcom Homes in 1997

In the village of Chartham a few miles from Canterbury in Kent, Chartham Asylum was opened in 1875, and in more recent times became part of the larger St Augustine's Mental Hospital. It was closed in 1993 and mostly demolished by Wilcon Homes in 1997.

Children feeding pigeons near Rochester Castle

A 1912 postcard of Rochester Castle in Kent. It once protected a crossing point on the River Medway.

The castle has the flag on top and looks like the archetypal sand castle ready to crumble and fall when the waves lap against its walls. Children are feeding the pigeons down below - completely unaware of the danger.

Rebekah Brooks and the Bridesmaid by Millais

A press picture of Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive at News International who has just shut down the News of the World.

A postcard reproduction of The Bridesmaid Painted in 1851 by Sir John Everett Millais

Watch the Birdy!

This elderly family group have come out onto the lawn to do the latest thing. They are facing the photographer with his box on stilts.

Out of respect the man in the centre has taken off his hat. The box is draped in black.

The photographer man then ducks under the dark drape, holds up a lollipop attached with string, and calls out to them "Watch the Birdy!" ...

There are no birds to be seen. Just a sudden bright light. Poof! And its over.

Royal Berkshire Regiment

My home town was once in Berkshire, and a lot of soldiers from these parts would have served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment which I believe these wonderful men represent - given the cap badges with the Regiment's Chinese Dragon insignia. (Click image to try to view bigger.)

The postcard of these WWI soldiers shows them looking delighted with what could be a gramophone player.

Brusher Mills - internet legend

This postcard has a picture of a man who was a tourist attraction in the New Forest. His Gravestone tells more... Harry Mills better known as "BRUSHER MILLS" who for a long number of years Followed the occupation of Snake Catcher, in the New Forest. His pursuit and the primitive way in which he lived, caused him to be an object of interest to many. He died suddenly July 1st 1905, aged 65 years.

The Brusher Mills Webpage has a lot more research.

I do find it moving to be able to jump from an old postcard to a real person that has been researched and well documented on the internet. He was considered curious and old fashioned in 1905. But in 2011 he could be on the way to becoming an internet legend.

The Mayor and Nurses

Posted in 1916 from Palmers Green, this postcard is by Barratt's Photo Press Ltd, Fleet Street, London, and shows fifteen nurses sitting either side of a Mayor with a big chain. The message says "Thought you might like a photo of us all in our working attire. We all have armlets although they do not all show. ..."  If you press the image to magnify its does show the armlets better.

None of the nurses are young. They could well be the matrons in command, and no younger nurse has quite reached the status of sitting with the Mayor. Possibly, they are volunteers during the war and the younger nurses are out at the front caring for the victims of that butchery.

Goodbye Village Store

This is a postcard from the village in Surrey where I spent my teenage years. First shop on the right was the Newsagent - Harts - from where I did my paper round and bought this card. There were a row of seven shops along the parade in those days. Now there are none.

The village magazine, The Nutfield Link, was begun in 1974 and as far as I know is still going strong. On one front cover it had a picture of the village Post Office. In the Millenium edition was a poem called "Goodbye Village PO Store"...

Young Lady with a smile

What strikes me first about this postcard from 1939, apart from the young lady with a smile, is how much is packed into a corner of one bedroom. The items may now look like what an elderly person might have round them in their retirement home but fashions change. She does not look English to me, possibly German.

A Lady in an Office

Sometimes I buy postcards on Ebay, sometimes from junk shops and antique shops. They just have to get my attention in some way. I paid about 99p + postage for this picture. The young lady does not look to be posing. She has not dressed specially for a photograph. It seems to be just a moment caught in time by a photographer as she fills in the ledger during an ordinary day in the office.We expect the extraordinary to be captured by a photographer. The ordinary is far more rare.

Dotty With Love

This postcard shows Horse Guards, Whitehall, London: a building guarded by members of the Household Cavalry.

The card was posted in 1916 to Dear Fanny...

It is written without punctuation and ends ... "we are all quite alright but the weather and the rain are enought to drive anybody dotty with love from Kate."