Postcard Stories

The past, presented. 

Recording postcard stories.

I've commenced a new feature on my Little Ireland website, called Postcard Stories. I have a large collection of old postcards from the Cleator Moor area and am currently transcribing the short messages that people once sent to each other. The postcards generally date from around 1900.

Postcards were a cheap and chearful way of communicating in the past, but they do also give an insight into those times. And, while some of the information written in the postcards may not be directly relevant to the town, they can be somewhat amusing - who was Cupid?

In the early decades of the 20th century the common means of communicating the holiday spirit was through the postcard, and there were literally hundreds of thousands sent.

The postcard is a relatively new phenomenon and the modern colour card owes its lineage to cards which were produced to send messages.

Early cards were not so focused on scenery; when they first appeared in the 1860s they were popular because they were cheaper to post and it saved people having to buy writing paper.

Postcards do offer up a fascinating social history of an area, which is why I've embarked upon this endeavour. I'm not sure how long this new feature will take to complete, but I think I'll have some fun with it on the way.

Regards addresses on the postcards, I've obfuscated them due to privacy issues - while the people probably no longer exist, the houses are still likely to be there.