Postcards on the way... out!

A quarter of the people surveyed by a holiday firm condemned the humble card as old fashioned. Half of the sample said they would be sending fewer cards in future.

That will worsen a trend which has seen the number of postcards posted in Britain drop by one million a year for the last five years.

So is it the end for another holiday tradition? If so, that would be a real shame. Because you cannot store text messages or emails in an album and keep them as souvenirs.

Bessie Inman's grandparents did just that. They collected postcards, and exchanged them with friends and family almost with the frequency people send text messages today.

"They sent each other picture postcards saying, 'I'm coming over to see you on such-and-such a day'," says Mrs Inman.

A good example is the message on the back of a 1917 card. It was sent by her uncle, Charlie Hawkes, to his mum. On the front is a colourful drawing of a man strolling along the seaside prom with a girl and her dog, under the legend: "Me and my bit swanking at Scarborough".

On the back he wrote: "Dear Mother, Arrived safe, the missus was on the fish pier with me and the wind blew her bonnet overboard, so it's no use taking care of them in showery weather. I did laugh to see it swimming..."

In this way the postcard offers historical value far beyond its size: on the front are pictorial snapshots of the past, on the back a handwritten glimpse into social history. Even the stamp tells a story: at this time, it cost a half penny to send one, or a penny if it was going abroad.

Postcards developed as photographic printing techniques improved, and their popularity took off as the railways launched the modern era of holidaymaking. They are an Austrian invention, in 1869, and came over to Britain the following year. York's first picture postcard was published by James W Arthur, of Davygate, to a design by the York artist Edwin Ridsdale Tate, in 1893.

Mrs Inman and her husband Laurie, a retired property maintenance manager for Shepherd's, kindly opened their four albums of old postcards at their Poppleton home. There are about 800 cards in a collection which dates from the turn of the last century up to about the 1920s.

The sheer variety of cards is astonishing. Many show cricket heroes of the day. Mrs Inman comes from a family of cricket enthusiasts: both her grandfather George Hawkes and her dad John captained the Poppleton team.

George's bat, complete with a crest marking his achievement in topping the run averages in 1903, remains in good nick. In fact Mr Inman was still knocking out a good few scores with it until he retired from the game in the 1960s.

Among the sporting postcards is one showing the England team from 1905 featuring CB Fry.

Some of the cards in the album were part of a set, such as the 12 coloured cards of Bridlington. Another set shows scenes from "the Franco-British Exhibition, London, 1908".

The various costumes featured in the York historic pageant of 1909 make up another colourful series.

There are probably more images of Scarborough than anywhere else. The Hawkes, who were market gardeners, used to stay with their relatives the Welshes, who had a fish stall in the resort.

"In those days they didn't get holidays like we do today," said Mrs Inman, a retired teacher who taught at Tang Hall and Hempland schools. "In market gardening in the growing season you couldn't take a week off. So a day in Scarborough was a holiday."

Several of the Scarborough collection show Holbeck Hall Gardens, and the Holbeck Hall Hotel, destined to slip into the sea many years later.

It seemed practically any image could be made into a postcard. Various portraits of local clergymen and soldiers, produced by the York firm Thwaites, are included.

The Hawke family themselves had photographs of their Poppleton home turned into postcards. A picture of grandad's winning entry into a York vegetable show was similarly transformed.

Major events, and even disasters, were commemorated on cards. Scenes of several Scarborough shipwrecks were recreated.

One postcard is headlined: "Ardsley Iron Furnace Explodes Resulting In The Loss Of Five Lives" and a picture of each of the dead men is included.

Other cards were sent to celebrate birthdays or Christmas, with little poems: "Many Happy Returns. May kindly fortune on you wait, And bring true joy within your gate."

There are none of the saucy postcards which later became popular, but many examples of broad humour.

One localised card shows a group of people crammed on board the top of a horse-drawn omnibus above the words: "Heworth, City & Station".

Underneath is a brief poem: "In nineteen hundred and ten/Electric Cars will be running by then/But we shan't make a fuss/ We'll still have the Bus/In nineteen hundred and ten."

A more colourful cartoon shows a policeman addressing an agitated housewife outside her terrace house: "What's the matter Mrs?"

"Well I suppose it's alright, but my old man's come home sober!"

Another has a grim-faced man perching two bawling infants on his knee with the warning: "Wedlock is a padlock". A far merrier chap is pictured reclining on a park bench after an afternoon's revelry: "Cost me 5/- to get like this but it's worth it".

One postcard had no picture but used new technology to make an old joke: "Quickest way of spreading news: Telephone, Telegraph, Tel-a-Woman."

Both Mr and Mrs Inman lament the decline of the postcard. They still send them while on holiday and hope the tradition continues.

And there is hope. When their Australian nephew visited them in May, he sent home 53 postcards!

Tomorrow the Channel 4 series That'll Teach 'Em begins when modern children are put through a Fifties-style education. If you were at school in the 1950s, we would love to hear what it was like. Which was toughest: the lessons, the teachers or the school dinners? If you have vivid memories of a Fifties schooling contact Stephen Lewis on (01904) 653051 ext 336 or email him on stephen.lewis@ycp.co.uk

Updated: 10:25 Monday, August 04, 2003