PPM revisits Manchester's Belle Vue amusement park - Picture ...

Braving the weather
Sixteen brave souls from
LOTHIAN Postcard Club
gathered on Edinburgh’s
Castle Esplanade on May
11th despite a biting north
wind, to enjoy a tour of the
city with guide George
Laing. Progress was made
down the Royal Mile as
George pointed out the history
of the older buildings.
The tour ended outside the
city’s oldest house, dating
back to 1460. The party then
set off to a local restaurant,
where a convivial evening
was spent. Three days later,
the club’s regular monthly
session was entertained by
Richard Cuthbertson
(extreme right in photo
above), whose interest in
postcards was first awakened
50 years ago when his
grandmother would occasionally
let him look into her
postcard album. If he was
good, he was allowed to
choose one! Four decades
later, that interest was
rekindled when Richard visited
an antiques fair in Stirling
and bought one dealer’s
entire Clackmannanshire
stock! From there it
was all go, and despite living
in Hong Kong, he was
sent batches of approvals
that allowed him to build up
an impressive Tillicoutry
collection, part of which he
displayed. As a bonus,
Richard also showed a
selection of about 180 postcards
of the island of
Macao, whose stamps he
once collected.
CROYDON members
enjoyed Ken Harman’s
unusual display last month
giving potted histories of
selected Surrey mansions.
He also included stories of
some of the more prominent
owners, like the Earl of
Eldon (Shirley House), Sir
Jeremiah Colman of English
mustard fame (Gatton Park)
and Thomas Hope of Depdene
(near Dorking), who
created a centre of classical
culture and taste.
Diana’s adventures
WEST LONDON club members
were hugely entertained
by 91-year-old Diana
Keevil, who packed a lifetime’s
tale into the evening,
recently. As a child she lived
with her mainly absent
father, illiterate mother,
grandmother and sister in
two rooms, one for living in
and one for sleeping in. At
the age of 12 she left home
to join a Hungarian dance
and acrobatic troupe and
was soon on the road touring
Europe. Diana performed
in street circus and
met celebrated artistes such
as Edith Piaf and Josephine
Baker. Bandleader Billy Cotton
helped her escape from
Germany on the eve of
World War Two. Diana’s
talk was filled with charm,
humour and anecdotes in a
truly fascinating performance
that included two
films of her act.
Sylvia and Michael
Porter went through the
alphabet - almost - as they
presented a guessing game
of places in Suffolk featured
on postcards from their collection
at BURY ST.
EDMUNDS’ latest session.
Projected on an epidiascope,
the event lacked only
the letter ‘J’ - which does
not fetaure on a Suffolk
place name. The Porters
also brought along their
charity cards for sale, and
many of the club members
were delighted to receive a
personal parcel of postcards
on their chosen subjects.
Margaret and Harry
Clark gave WEALDEN’s
audience in May a fascinating
insight into the history
and growth of Rustington,
and the thoughts of residents
and visitors on postcards
from the village. You
could probably write a
meteorological history of
Rustington, which inspired
an amazing number of postcards,
from messages on
the backs!
Alan Barwick’s millionaire’s
quiz formed the second
part of the evening.
Three contestants, Brian
and Roy Tester along with
Colin McDougall, were subjected
to questions of varying
difficulty on the subject
of picture postcards. They
could call on a friend from
the audience, go 50-50 or
stick. Each did well, but
there had to be a tie-break
question in the end to
decide the winner, who
turned out to be Brian
Tester.
Postcard dealer Richard
Spurgin was guest speaker
at the NORFOLK club in
May, asking “why not look
at the back?”and dividing
his talk into two distinct
parts. In the first he stressed
the significance of stamps
and postmarks. Using
superb enlarged visual aids,
Richard showed how seemingly
mundane postcards
sometimes carried a collecting
bonus on the reverse
and suggested cheap boxes
were often a good source of
interesting postmarks. Messages,
too, could provide
extra fascination. In the second
part of his talk, Richard
looked at the many famous
cachet postmarks, including
Lands End, Snowdon, Snaefell,
John O’Groats and
even Blackpool Tower.
COTSWOLD club members
went on a visit to the
Living Memory Historical
Association at Cirencester.
This is a small, privately-run
museum where interest
centres on the military
aspects of World War II and
the following two decades.
It houses a wonderful collection
of genuine articles
such as uniforms of soldiers
and nurses, backed up by
everyday objects from the
wartime years. Two of the
museum’s founder-members
provided a guided tour
of the fascinating exhibits.
James Marshall gave a
WEST LONDON audience a
railway treat in April as he
linked an outline of the technical
evolution of railway
engines with the personality
of the Rev. Wilbert Awdrey,
creator of Thomas the Tank
Engine. Awdry was very
concerned with authenticity,
but the illustrator of his
books, C. Reginald Dalby,
was more interested in
artistic style. The author
was particularly infuriated
with Henry the Green
Engine and had him
wrecked in one story so he
could be rebuilt! James’s
presentation included plenty
of biographical detail
about the author.
Club members had an
outing to Brentford, too,
where three guides
revealed everything to
interest the visitor, including
a Victorian sewage
pumping station, the 18th
century soaphouse, and the
large complex of roads, railways,
docks and canals in
the borough.
Postcards relating to mail recovery from aircraft and shipping disasters was the subject
of Peter Day’s talk at the NORFOLK club last month. Cards of the vessels before and
at the time of an accident, cards carried on board and related messages were all introduced
into a fascinating mix. Peter also covered wartime wrecks.
NOTTINGHAM Postcard Club chairman Graham Hopcroft
has arranged a tour of the city’s Council House to replace
this month’s meeting. It takes place on the evening of 13th
July, starting at 7pm. For further details and to book a
place, ring Graham on 0115 9224057.
A touch of the black
stuff
BRADFORD Postcard Society
stalwart Joan Dennison
was on the Guinness in
May, basing her ‘Toucan &
all that’ talk and display on
postcards related to the
famous drink. Joan was
born in Dublin, so is obviously
well-qualified to deal
with the subject! She put on
an excellent display which
included some superb real
photographic cards showing
interior and exterior
views of the factory. Fascinating
historical background
information about
founder Arthur Guinness
came out, along with information
on the artists who
had designed adverts for
the company.
Stonehaven nostagia
GRAMPIAN Postcard Club’s
second meeting welcomed
five new members as Brian
Watt entertained with ‘Old
Stonehaven’, which generated
plenty of discussion
and reminiscing. Dealer
Moira Rothnie had her stock
on display, and with other
members bringing spares,
the informal trading was
greatly enjoyed.
Three-way tie
Guests from the Cotswold
and Mendip clubs were at
BRISTOL’s session last
month, when all three clubs
gave short presentations.
The host club showed a collection
of photos of the
development and construction
of the ‘Bristol
Brabazon’ aircraft, which
first flew in 1949. The runway
at Filton had to be
quadrupled in length to
accommodate it. Cotswold
offered postcards of the 28
medieval windows of St.
Mary’s Church, Fairford,
and a fine selection of postcards
covering special
events at the church, including
fetes, outings and
choirs. Mendip’s display
was a slideshow of postcards
and photos covering
the Raynsfords in wartime,
with cards showing the
family village of Chiddingfold
in Surrey, various WW1
postcards, including one of
a soldier member of the
family who died at Arras in
May 1917.
* Details of club contacts,
meeting times and venues
can be found in 2010 Picture
Postcard Annual.
Picture Postcard Monthly July 2010 21