The great British tradition of the seaside postcard is, alas, a thing of the past.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
People just don't need to send them anymore when they are able to keep in contact by mobile, text or e mail. It was not always so of course. Sending a saucy postcard to family, friends or workmates was as much part of the holiday as ice cream and bucket and spade. And the selection of cards on offer was huge. You could always find the suitable one for the person you had in mind.
The seaside postcard was an essential part of working class Britain. It's popularity went hand in hand with the development of the annual holiday shutdown of factories when an increasing number of workers escaped to the coast for a week. Bank Holidays were first introduced in 1871 and by 1908 it is reputed that 860 million cards a year were being posted in the UK. Yes I will write that again for you. 860 million !! I just cant get my head around that figure. Those early cards were more often photographs with deep rich colours added. The images were likely to be romantic and whilst the caption could be amusing it was often secondary to the picture. By the 1920's and 30's , seaside postcards had become somewhat lighter and more risque in content but nothing in comparison to the 60's and 70's when, with traditional taboo subjects blown away, the publishers found a huge market for naughty, rude and vulgar material.
The largest publisher of seaside postcards were Bamforth, who were based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire ( coincidentally the home also of Last Of The Summer Wine). James Bamforth had originally been a film maker with the reputation of producing many of the finest early examples of British comedy. Movie making ceased however at the outbreak of war in 1914 and the company concentrated on postcard production and in particular song cards for the soldiers in the trenches.
The seaside postcard was an essential part of working class Britain. It's popularity went hand in hand with the development of the annual holiday shutdown of factories when an increasing number of workers escaped to the coast for a week. Bank Holidays were first introduced in 1871 and by 1908 it is reputed that 860 million cards a year were being posted in the UK. Yes I will write that again for you. 860 million !! I just cant get my head around that figure. Those early cards were more often photographs with deep rich colours added. The images were likely to be romantic and whilst the caption could be amusing it was often secondary to the picture. By the 1920's and 30's , seaside postcards had become somewhat lighter and more risque in content but nothing in comparison to the 60's and 70's when, with traditional taboo subjects blown away, the publishers found a huge market for naughty, rude and vulgar material.
The largest publisher of seaside postcards were Bamforth, who were based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire ( coincidentally the home also of Last Of The Summer Wine). James Bamforth had originally been a film maker with the reputation of producing many of the finest early examples of British comedy. Movie making ceased however at the outbreak of war in 1914 and the company concentrated on postcard production and in particular song cards for the soldiers in the trenches.
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If saucy postcards played any part in your life 30-40 years ago, I can promise you many of them will have been Bamforth. Other publishers entered the market, and were equally entertaining, but it is the Bamforth postcard which remains to this day the most popular and sought after. I have a reasonably sized collection of these postcards, upwards of a 1000 and still growing by the week. Not just Bamforth but other similar series as well. The mass market for holiday postcards has, as I have already said,gone.And in any case many of the jokes would no longer be acceptable to the great British public. I will blog more examples in the future but the first two shown, and picked at random, get at the Drunk and The Female Hippie in the top one, followed by The Fat Man underneath. Believe me, everyone gets their turn ; Skinny Men , Newlyweds , Buxom Women, Stupid Kids, Policemen, Bald Men, Pregnant Women........and many more.
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In 2007 the sentiments may appear mis-guided, but the truth is there was a time when people found buying and receiving saucy postcards fun. Looking back, we all had a laugh together.................
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