Around Wales in the 1950s

A couple of weeks ago I was celebrating the end of a long-running task - the scanning of some 700 postcards from the Hayley Easthope collection. Readers may well have been wondering when to expect to see them, but with so many postcards from so many different countries it was a daunting job trying to think of how to present them!

So here's the first instalment. Wales is the country most represented outside England so today's selection are all of Wales. There are around 80 postcards from Wales so to try to arrange them into suitably sized collections, today's postcards are all older monochrome shots. They were mostly published as black and white, but there are a couple of sepia treated examples.

Llangwyfan Old Church, (The Church In The Sea) Aberffraw, nr. Rhosneigr. This tiny 13th century church of St Cwyfan stands on the south west coast of Anglesey. The land on which it stands was once part of the island of Anglesey itself, but erosion of the land by the sea sometime after 1770 caused the land around the church to be cut off at high tide, forming an island known as Cribinau. By the early 1900s the erosion was encroaching on the churchyard and some graves were lost to the sea, at which point a wall was built around the remains of the island to protect it.

In the latter half of the 18th century a very strange thing occurred. In 1766 Dr Thomas Bowles, an ageing English priest, was appointed to St Cwyfan's church. The congregation numbered 500 and of those, 99% spoke Welsh but no English. Dr Bowles spoke English but no Welsh... Not surprisingly the locals demanded he be replaced. A court in 1773 found that he should not have been appointed to a Welsh-speaking parish, but now that he had been - and legally - he could not be removed. In the event, he stayed for another ten months before he passed away, leaving the way open for his replacement by a Welsh-speaking priest.

Wrexham, The Yale Tomb & Sundial. Specifically this is the tomb of the exotically named Elihu Yale, born in 1649 in Boston, Massachusetts. He worked for the British East India Company and whilst in their employ became Governor of Fort St George in Madras. He made himself extremely rich mostly by flaunting the rules of the company and entering into secret deals. After five years he was removed by the East India Company and returned to live at Plas Grono, the family mansion near Wrexham in Wales, where he proceeded to enjoy spending his accumulated wealth. Part of it was spent in response to a request for help from the Collegiate School of Connecticut. Yale sent them some books, a portrait of King George I and some goods which were sold for the very considerable sum (at the time) of £800. A new building was erected and called Yale in gratitude and later Yale became the name of the entire institution.

The seaside resort of Tenby is one of Britain's most westerly towns, but still manages to have a seafront facing east on the south coast of Wales. This gives it a sheltered harbour and it was an early trading post between Wales and the Norsemen in the 9th century. There are remains of 13th century town walls. Castle Hill, seen in the top left segment of the postcard, started off as a hill fort and the stone castle was built following the Norman Conquest by the Earls of Pembroke. Meg and Ern sent this postcard to an address in Wellington, Shropshire in July 1959. They had attended a wedding on the previous Saturday and had then journeyed by train to reach Tenby that night. Perhaps they were the two who got married? The message finishes with a somewhat breathless "See you sometime - don't know when!"

The Promenade, Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Colwyn Bay is a resort roughly halfway along the north coast of Wales in the county of Denbighshire, facing onto the Irish Sea. It enjoys a mild climate thanks to the wind passing over the mountains of Snowdonia to the south which then dry out and get warmer as they descend towards Colwyn Bay. A lovely row of old-style motor cars along the Promenade with a half-cab single deck bus approaching in the distance. The card was sent back to Wellington, Shropshire on 11 July 1956 during which week "A heat wave decided to come too!"

Erddig Hall, Wrexham. Erddig Hall is a National Trust stately home (voted the UK's "favourite historic house" by Britain's Best). It was built by the High Sheriff of Denbighshire, Joshua Edisbury, in 1684-87. It was sold to John Mellor, Master of Chancery, in 1714 and on his death in 1733 passed to the Yorke family who owned it through several generations through 240 years until it was given to the National Trust in 1973.

Several years earlier a shaft from Bersham Colliery had collapsed underneath the house, causing a subsidence of five feet, requiring a substantial sum of money to save the house. Compensation paid for the necessary structural underpinning, but 63 acres of parkland had to be sold to finance the restoration of the house.

Writing on 21 July 1954, in a hand that turns each of the capital letters F, S and T to a J, the cursive lower-case is thankfully easier to read. "Just to let you know we are having a nice time and lovely weather. We are getting out somewhere each day. Hope Rex hasn't been fretting. We shall stay until the last train on Friday but don't wait for us if that is too late for you. All are well here and your Dad and I are feeling better for the change. Love to both, Mum."

Wrexham, The Cup and Saucer, Erddig Park. Three years later, Mum makes the return journey but obviously alone, for she writes: "Just to let you know I am having a nice time and a good rest. Could manage a month like this, shall be home Friday. Love to both, Mum."

The Cup and Saucer, situated close to Erddig Hall was a pool or font, filled with water by a hydraulic ram which forced water uphill from the nearby river.

The Gateway, Acton Hall. Another once-stately home near to Wrexham, Acton Hall was demolished in 1954 having become badly dilapidated. It had once been owned by the Jeffreys family - they who included the infamous Judge Jeffreys, the Hanging Judge, in the 17th century.

The card was sent again in 1954 back to the same address as the Erddig Hall postcard, by the same Mum and Dad. The postmark is missing the exact date but presumably this was from a different visit as although there is the same hope that "Rex is ok" (what was the matter with that dog / cat / guinea pig / goldfish / milkman?), on this occasion the absent parents are due to arrive on the "last train on Wednesday." Perhaps this time because the "weather is very wet."

Harbour and Beach, Saundersfoot. Saundersfoot is a hop, skip and jump up the coast from Tenby. The harbour dates only from Parliament granting permission in 1829, though coal from the many mines around the village had been loaded onto boats from the beach for centuries. Another card with a line of cars of the 1950s. This time a more modern light-coloured box saloon can be seen third from the right. This card has also gone back to Wellington, Shropshire but was sent by Meg (due to be half of the couple Meg and Ern who we met earlier) on 12 June 1957. She writes: "Having a lovely time here at Tenby. Weather perfect, been in for a swim once or twice every day. It has a beautiful stretch of sandy beach."

The Two Bridges, Menai Strait. The Menai Strait separates the island of Anglesey from the Welsh mainland. Cross from the Welsh mainland to Anglesey and turn left and you come to the village whose name trips so easily from the tongue: Llanfairpwillgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch... As the old joke goes: I asked the guy behind the cafe counter to say the name of the place really slowly. He said "B-u-r-g-e-r K-i-n-g...". This time another branch of the family is roaming Wales and writing back to Shropshire. On the 1st of July 1954 the message went "Thursday. Shall be pleased to see you at the usual time on Sunday. Order a fine sunny day. Love Aunty P, Uncle E."

Horse Shoe Falls, Llangollen. This is a 460-feet (140m) long weir, stocking a pool from which water can be released into the Llangollen Canal. It dates from 1908. This card is unused and therefore cannot be dated.

Mannekin Pis ('Ere, What's That... Oh, That's Disgustin'!)

Some three years ago whilst buying some 78 rpm records I was asked if I collected postcards as well. On saying yes, a large cardboard box appeared and it was given to me freely by the wonderful Hayley Easthope. I rashly promised to send a CD of the scanned images once I had got through them.

They went on the back burner for a while at my excitement in going through the 78s - about a third of which are still waiting to be looked at and played. But every now and then the box has come out and I've spent an hour or so scanning them and it seemed never to make a dent in them! Last weekend I finished going through them and when I checked the folder that I had been scanning to there were 700 files in it. There's been a lot of those odd hours or so over the three years!

One set of postcards from the collection has already featured here over several posts. Hayley's collection included the postcards sent by World War One soldier Edgar Pedley and they gave a fascinating insight into one man's experiences in the war. (Being a blog, the entries will appear in reverse order)

This article features a book of postcards brought back from another war. Hayley's father brought this book of photos back from Belgium at the end of World War 2. They were never used, they were brought back as a souvenir. The book is intact, though a little fragile from being opened and viewed many times over the last 70 years.

The Mannekin Pis of Brussels is a fairly small statue of a little boy relieving his bladder. Known in UK popularly as The Pissing Boy it either delights you with its innocence or disgusts you with its vulgarity.

The Belgians must be really proud of it because of all of the postcards I have from Belgium (not just the ones from Hayley's collection) the percentage of them that include this particular water feature is over 70%!

That's a staggering amount. The majority of the ones that don't feature it are views of Bruges. A place I must really visit myself one of these days.

So far my only trips through (rather than to) Belgium have been on coach holidays to Austria or Amsterdam. We did stop to look at a Belgian chocolate factory once which put me off Belgian chocolate for life as I watched a chocolate-covered bluebottle struggling as it went round and round a mixing wheel. I suspect in real life the chocolate on that wheel was for public display rather than for eating, but they really should have checked it once in a while!

Ok, I'll shut up for a while and show the rest of the postcards from this book.

Looking at the cartoons - and in particular at the clothes of the people depicted you could be forgiven for thinking this book of postcards dated from the earlier war of 1914-18...

...but then, in amongst them is this one with a hemline above the knee which clearly belongs from the mid 1940s onwards.

And I'll finish with another postcard of the Mannekin Pis that shows a real photograph. I'm sure today the water would be supplied from a pipe hidden in his leg. Perhaps the pain of the pipe makes up for the embarrassment he has caused the more inhibited viewers over the years!

Many thanks Hayley. More postcards from the Hayley Easthope Collection to come every now and then!

Austrian Folk Dancing from the Easthope Postcard Collection

A couple of years ago I was given a huge collection of postcards and at intervals I have been digging them out and scanning them. So far I have scanned almost 600 of them and indexed them. Some have appeared already on this blog, notably the series about A. Edgar Pedley who served in the Somme and afterwards in World War One. I still have 160 to scan and then I can finally send the promised CD of scanned images! It's taken a while (blush).

Today I feature a postcard bought by or sent to Hayley Easthope's family from abroad. This has brought some of my own memories to the surface and - yes... I'm going to subject you to them!

This is an unsent postcard, bought as a souvenir in Austria and it shows one of those folk bands that are a feature of every week's stay in a hotel in the Tyrol. It's a night of knee, foot and hand slapping, bell ringing, wood chopping and iron bar hammering.

If you are drunk enough or daft enough to look them in the eye, this happens... Before you know it you are up on stage with your trouser legs rolled up, the butt of jokes delivered in German. There is only one thing to do...

You out-do the dancers, you yodel at the top of your voice, and you ham it up until the audience belong to you. This was 2001 and as I came off the stage it took ages to walk back to my seat and the hysterical laughter of Miss Franny because at every table I passed someone got up to shake my hand... The rest of our party (we were on a coach trip) were still mentioning the night on our way home at the end of the week...

The postcard was unsent because whoever bought it also must have had a great night and they got the group to autograph the reverse of the card.

Edgar Pedley in Germany at The End of World War One

I made a bit of a boo boo yesterday with my entry in the Edgar Pedley series. These two postcards featured here should have come first. So apologies to those of you following Edgar's time in the Signals Corps during World War One. This marks the last of my entries about Edgar unless Hayley Easthope, whose collection the postcards come from, can find any more.

I said in yesterday's entry that Edgar had had some leave at the end of the war, but it was obviously not for a while as these postcards prove that he was first sent into Germany as part of the occupying force. They were posted on the 19th January 1919 and postmarked by an anonymous Field Post Office, but both the postcards depict the German city of Köln or, as we would call it in English, Cologne. French actually - Cologne was what the French called it when it became part of the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte.

Britain kept an occupying force in the city from the end of the war until 1926 and Edgar seems to have been a part of the British Army of the Rhine. I don't have his full message this time. He is once again writing home to his friends Arthur and Fanny Storr in Shropshire with whom he lodged. He sent the message in three parts, each on a separate postcard, numbering the parts in the corner. I have only parts two and three.

Edgar congratulates Arthur on his own homecoming. We know that Arthur had been wounded and he must have been demobilised from the army at the end of 1918. Edgar's own circumstances are telling on him a little as can be gleaned from the tone of his message.

2/ ...you've no idea what a treat it is to get such nice things to eat. Well Arthur I'm very pleased to hear that you are safely back at home, whatever does it feel like to be a free man again? I wonder how much...

3/ ...longer I have to do. I'm afraid now that I am in this quarter I shall be some time eh, what do you think? I'm more fed up now than ever I've been. Do you think troops in Germany will be released with the others(?) Well I suppose I must grin and bear it, but it's hard lines, one leave in 2 years isn't it? Well Cheerio Arthur, must close now, will let you have a letter soon. Hope you are all keeping quite well. Kindest Regards to all at 22 (the house number) Yours etc. Ped

Post Script

Alfred Edgar Pedley was born in 1892. As we have already seen due to my mistake with the order of these entries, he must have been sent home on leave temporarily sometime between January and April 1919 as the last postcard in my possession has him about to board ship in Folkestone on May 19, 1919 heading back to Germany.

The postcards have come from the collection of Hayley Easthope, a friend I met through a common interest in the singer Billy Fury. Fanny Storr was her great aunt, being the sister of Hayley's grandmother. Arthur Storr died in the early 1950s and at some point afterwards Edgar and Fanny were married together. Without any more information I'm not making any assumptions about this fact other than to point out the following:

In the 1950s a single man lodging with a single woman would be bound to cause gossip and a little scandal. The likelihood is that their marriage was one primarily of convenience to avoid scandal and to allow Edgar to carry on living at what he would obviously regard as home, but it was also a marriage between two people who had been long-standing friends. Yet in Edgar's postcards he addresses them to Arthur and Mrs Storr and never takes the liberty of using Fanny's given name.

Edgar would by then have been in his sixties. Being sixty in 1950 was not quite like being sixty in 2015. Life expectancy was not as long as it is now and in photographs of the time, people of middle age in the 1950s can look a lot older to our modern eyes. Edgar died in 1966 aged 74. He was one of those brave men who risked everything to keep their country safe and as such I salute him.

Rest In Peace, Edgar Pedley.

Back to the Edgar Pedley Index

Edgar Pedley Sent Back To Germany Following World War One

I mentioned that it was a while since we caught up with the exploits of Edgar Pedley who served in the Signals Corps through the First World War.

Edgar's missives home, or at least those that are still in existence because it's quite likely some were lost or went to other branches of the family, are few. From the time he left for war in 1916 there is a single postcard from 1916, one from 1917 and then right up to May 1918 which is the last we heard from him (in this entry published on the blog in November 2014).

Edgar survived the war and enjoyed a spot of leave from the Army back home in Shropshire where he lodged with Arthur and Fanny Storr. It is now the 19th of May 1919 and Edgar has been mobilised again as we can read in his postcard, posted from Folkestone.

Folkestone, Saturday.

Dear A & Mrs Storr
Arrived here 10:30am, beautiful day, sea front crowded, orchestra playing (what a nice send off!) Had to wait at Crewe last night from 7:15pm to 11:40pm, just what I'd expected, Expect to sail about 2:30 this afternoon. Cheerio

Date unknown: Edgar Pedley (right) enjoying a picnic with Fanny and Arthur Storr.

Back to the Edgar Pedley Index

WWI Postcard From The Front

The last we heard from Edgar Pedley of the 59th Signal Corps, it was 1916 and he was about to leave for France.

It's now 18 March 1917. Edgar is on Active Service and the postcard he sends is simply postmarked "Field Post Office". A crimson stamp mark attests that his comments have been passed by the Field Censor.

The postcard is one of a French series "La Grand Guerre Européene" ("The Great European War") - even at this stage it was becoming known as "The Great War"... We don't know where the postcard was sent from - the postcard looks as though it once gave the location away, but this has been rubbed or scraped until the name has been obliterated so that if it came into the hands of the enemy they would not be able to tell where Allied troops were stationed.

The remaining caption reads: Intériur de la Sncrerie (sic) - Interior of the Sugar house

Either the U of "sucrerie" was placed upside down by mistake or every U had been lost to war damage and the N inserted as most people (French speakers at least...) would know what was meant. Edgar filled every available space on the back of the postcard yet without giving away any secrets - no mention of his unit or place names, or his rank. In a short sentence right at the top of the postcard he writes: "Read page 3, column 4 Mail Mar 17th" Obviously significant in some way, but I've not been able to find a copy to see. It's possible that this message could have been added later. I can't imagine that Edgar would have managed to read the paper from France only the day after it was published.

There is another postscript added towards the top of the card but in the order that I suspect Edgar wrote his card, he says:

Mar 18th 17

Just a pc to say still going on alright. Parcel not yet to hand, I wonder if somebody's doing it on me, they will have a good time but expect it will turn up eventually, will let you know on receipt. A pal and I have just come a cycle ride to a small village about 4 miles, a terrible place now, but nevertheless possesses a YMCA (in an old barn). Thank you for papers received last night, 17th. Kindest regards to all AEP.

The postscript at the top reads: Thanks for letters of Sunday just received, sorry to hear of Arthur's condition, shall be glad to hear how he's going on.

Postcard from the Hayley Easthope Collection.

Back to the Edgar Pedley Index

Off To Fight in World War One

Another of the postcards from the Hayley Easthope Collection today. A while ago I featured a postcard sent by her great-uncle, Edgar Pedley who served in the 59th Signal Corps in World War One. At the time he sent this postcard in 1916 he was about to set off on his way to France.

The postcard is one of the Daily Mail "Battle Pictures", of which some 20+ series were produced, each series having 8 views. This is No.8 of series 1 and shows a prisoner of war camp. The caption reads: "Thirsty German prisoners in their barbed wire cage".

On the back of the card the subject is expanded on thus: "The first desire of German prisoners brought to camp is to quench their thirst, and the picture shows how they rush to the water tanks."

Anyone wanting to object to the comma used before an "and" should contact the Daily Mail not me... In the first place before complaining you may want to check whether any of the editorial staff from 1916 are still there...

The stamp has been removed, taking with it the postmark so we can't be sure of the exact date. It was an early start for them. Either Edgar didn't have much time to write or the thoughts of what was to come perhaps made him a little reticent. He wrote: "Fovant Friday 5:30am. Just starting en route for France. Au revoir. A E Pedley"

Fovant is in Wiltshire to the west of Salisbury.

Back to the Edgar Pedley Index

Welsh Postcards

January's a quiet month for photographers so that sort of leads to a quietish month on the blog as well. I can't let 78rpm records dominate the blog to the exclusions of all else, so here's a quick (and somewhat lazy) series of postcards from the Hayley Easthope collection. As they came from not too far from the Welsh border, I'll pick out a few postcards of that part of the United Kingdom and hope that the recent problems with weather particularly around Aberystwyth abate soon!

Hayley gave me a massive collection of postcards - I'm not halfway through them yet, but there's 260 of them scanned so far covering all sorts of places from the Wirral and Southend to Arab states and China! It'll keep me going for a bit!

Introducing The Easthope Postcard Collection

A week ago we stopped by in the Midlands to buy a couple of large boxes full of 78 rpm records and was also given a box of old postcards. I love postcards as regular readers will know and I've hardly made a dent in this collection yet. But I've seen enough to know that there are cards from all around the world and going back a good few years!

So let's start off fairly close to home with this postcard of Wallasey in the 1950s. Some lovely old cars in the background and with some examples of another source of fascination with me - the street furniture, in the shape of the Keep Left signs on the roundabout.

I have been once, or twice perhaps, to Loch Lomond up there in Scotland and whilst it is undoubtedly a beautiful place, I've never seen the loch looking as blue as this! This shouts out "I'm a 1950s/60s postcard!" at me. I'd be willing to bet that that boat in the distance wasn't really red, that the chap wasn't really wearing a red jumper. The company artists always added some bright red and/or yellow to give their postcards a bit of zip!

A little later on and the real colour of the sea is allowed to show through, as in this postcard of Southend. Even so postcard photographers tried to find at least one person wearing something red!

When you find a postcard of the QE2 luxury liner, it's a pretty safe bet that somewhere in the collection there will be a few postcards from more exotic places. The exotic far east can wait for another entry, but let's dig out one foreign postcard to finish with.

I've chosen this one to end this first look at the collection. It's from the late 1940s or early 1950s and shows Montreux on the shore of Lake Geneva. Taken in glorious black and white, the quality of this postcard is excellent. Given that this is a lake in Switzerland it's perhaps unlikely that whoever sent the card back to England arrived there on the QE2...