Published in Windlesora 23 (2007)
© WLHG
There will be many reasons to start a collection of postcards. Perhaps a love of travel at home or abroad will stimulate an interest in a certain aspect of the journey such as trains or planes. Scenery and people are interesting; indeed I have a collection of postcards of the many fountains in the south of France and also the metal belfries. I think a very important reason to collect postcards is through books. If one has a topographical library of a particular area postcards are an excellent accompaniment to the books, old and new.
This is the reason for my collection of postcards of Windsor, which includes shops that have now gone and even houses that have been pulled down. My late husband was a great bibliophile and collected books and postcards of the River Thames (including the steamers), Berkshire and the Thames Valley.
An excellent source of cards was to be found when away from the area in antiquarian bookshops and also charity shops. These were usually less costly than if we had bought them locally.
The First World War is a popular subject for collectors. Some look for battle areas and others pictures of different regiments. A popular card at the time was a view which had been dusted with sparkle and sent by a soldier to his family in England. The cards were very patriotic and the Union Flag usually appeared somewhere.
Many postcards have an address and postmark. On the left is the postmark of Clewer Post Office. A message could be arranging a visit to the recipient the same day and of course in the days of more than one delivery, the card arrived in time.
I have a postcard with Clewer Post Office on it and this was next to The Bell, not where the last post office was, and has long gone, being a florist in 2006, but at least the building is still there. This is a very good way to record the loss of buildings and the changing street patterns.
I hope that this short discourse has stimulated an interest in collecting!
Beryl Hedges
Appendix
One of Beryl’s postcards of Alexandra Gardens, showing the bandstand, appears below.
Windsor Local History Group 