Devonshire September October 2018

floodgates were opened to the
masses for seaside holidays.
Of course the train was not
the only option; you may have
seen old Pathe News film of
the working classes cramming
into buses, the men resplendent
in their best suits, knotted
handkerchiefs strategically
placed to soak up the
sweat. The heat would
have been stifling
- how easily we forget
that air-conditioning
is a relatively modern
addition to travel.
You can be fairly certain that the
upper classes would have viewed
these garish, rowdy visitors with
disdain, heralding the end of an
era for them. If you take a careful
look at seaside towns such as
Torquay and Sidmouth for
instance, it's evident they were
upmarket destinations and must
have been extremely beautiful,
our Victorian predecessors
having great interest in exotic
trees and architecture. Many of
the 19th century buildings were
expensively designed and built,
some not looking out of place
in our capital, complete with
elegant pilasters and ornamental
More than
a touch
of cheek
here - the
globe shows
Teignmouth
in large
lettering,
with
Torquay
in much
diminished
type. Again
town
councils
fighting for
a bit of the
trade.
Stretching a point - 'The
Mentone of England' - do you
know where Mentone is?
cornice decoration. In the 1800s
and up until the early 1900s the
prosperous British Empire will
certainly have enabled many
wealthy individuals to build their
own elegant seaside villas. The
development of these towns
would have been further boosted
by the Napoleonic Wars in the
early 1800s, which prevented
The Holidays with Pay Act
certainly heralded a boom in the
seaside tourist industry
wealthy individuals from
travelling abroad. The railways
will have helped greatly in
facilitating the building of these
grand villas, allowing materials
to be easily transported from
from other parts of Britain.
Returning to the subject in hand,
old railway posters created in
the golden age of rail travel, the
railway companies realised that
there were massive opportunities
to be exploited. Promoting their
own lines and destinations made
good commercial sense. Posters
were one way of marketing their
offerings and you can see from
And why shouldn't one find
romance on holiday? North
Devon was obviously the place
for it - online dating didn't
exist then (thankfully!).
some of the posters shown
that the earlier posters were
fairly primitive in their design
and execution, but they must
have been effective because
you are able to see a massive
improvement, with some of the
artistry employed being of an
extremely high standard. I'm
sure you'll agree that many are
beautiful and worthy
in their own right to
be considered works
of art.
Of tremendous help
to the artist is the
fact that Devon's an
extremely attractive county and
at the time even more so, covered
with hedgerows, orchards, large
trees, sleepy rural villages and
farms, the journey through mid
20th century countryside must
have been absolutely heavenly.
It's great to see how the
marketing men put their heads
together at the time, carefully
tailoring the messages built
into these posters. The finest
evolution is where the artists
were given free reign to visually
extol the natural virtues of this
glorious county.
Editor
An absolutely charming
early poster, the fish
family. The umberella's
a clever idea, adding a
touch of colour.
The artist has made Brixham
beautiful! The sails, colours,
superb. Let's make no mistake, tons
of fish actually stank, but it's what
the marketing men (sorry women
also) did. Dress it up to look lovely
- good work guys, that's not to say
Brixham isn't lovely, it certainly is.
Some of the fish landed at Brixham, a
major UK port for the fish industry.
Appealing
to redblooded
males
perhaps?
Today,
this sort of
imagery is
positively
frowned
upon.
Yes indeed, Devon's a glorious
place, who wouldn't wish to visit?
hubcast
Devon, a British Rail poster by the
What’s artist on in A. Devon Johnston
.co.u k
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