It's always sunny in Silsden

The Howden Gill is a winding stream in Yorkshire. The only hit on it is from a site called Yorkshire Walks, and it is marked on the postcard "Silsden". Silsden was apparently a very important town, especially in the era of mills, but also boasts the world's largest onion and a 1st century coin hoard.
It is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, so it would seem the place has been there quite a while.

This postcard was written and sent half a decade before the start of the First World War, during the height of the 'Golden Age', and sent to Morecombe, a popular vacationing spot (especially for people living in the North, and Scotland).

The front of the card reads, "Howden Gill Silsden".

                                                                               
The reverse is addressed to "Mr. Russell, c/o Miss Dawson 39 Clarendon Rd Morecombe WC"
and says, " Dear Friends we shall be pleased to see you & will meet the bus, off that train, hope you will have better weather. Yours truly Mrs Tillot."

 Postmarked 19 August, 1909.

Merry (belated) Christmas

If only these could be scanned in a calendar-appropriate order, life would be grand. But that's not how they show up, so they're posted as they appear. The hundred-year-old paper holding them is falling apart, so often they are hanging about in boxes, waiting to be scanned.

This one features the epitome of the Edwardian lady...ostrich plume, extravagant hat (thanks, Lily Elsie!)and wrapped in an ermine scarf and carrying a matching ermine purse. That's a LOT of ermine (which are really quite small while still wearing their own coats).

Puzzlingly, she is holding an umbrella, but that could just be a Canadian view of things: generally, snow here is a little more than an umbrella could handle.

Nonetheless, it's a charming card, worthy of not for the sweeping Beaux Arts font alone.

No inscription or postmark, undated.

Houses of Parliament, London, circa 1910

Not a whole lot to say about  this one. It wasn't addressed or sent, so dating it is kind of a shot in the dark, based on the age of the rest of the collection.


The view is from the Thames, with I think scenic garbage barges(scows?) in the foreground.
Perhaps in Edwardian England, the travel slogan "COME TO LONDON, WE HAVE GARBAGE REMOVAL!" means more than it would today.

Also, not much luck recreating this angle in a more recent photo. What is clear from all of the old postcards is that about 97% of the greenery has been removed. No trees, no shrubs, no flower gardens...all paved over. PROGRESS.

To be fair,  the Palace of Westminster did get the bejeesus bombed out of it a couple of times, was on fire (more than once), and had to be rebuilt...odds are good that changes a place just a little.

Corporation Street, Birmingham

Ah, how times have changed. This would be a text message now:

But text messages are neither this elegant nor durable.

Glorious Blackpool!

The first thing I did when I read the message was smile. I really hope it was the time of Mary's life, as we all know that things got really ugly from 1915-1919, then again about twenty years later.
Still, Blackpool might have been a nice diversion from all of that.

Adel Church, Leeds

Adel Church, Leeds is the subject of this lovely postcard, sent to Elsie by her friend M. Keys. The thought is that Elsie and her family would know this church well, as she was from Leeds, and this may have even been their home parish.

Happily, Adel Church still exists, and looks pretty much as it has since the time of Normans. The church even has a tech-savvy website, where you can find out more information.

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If you're wondering about the absence of postage, it seems that many of these cards were mailed in envelopes, perhaps more than one at a time. Sadly, I do not have the envelopes, but the postcards remain.

The Winter Gardens of Yarmouth

This postcard is an aborted attempt to send something to Dear Mot[her]...but it would be lovely to see if the Winter Gardens of Yarmouth survived, and what they might look like today.

Unfortunately, I'm on the other side of the Atlantic and can't tell...

Eve of Destruction

It's funny, one always thinks of people in 'history' as knowing how it all would turn out. For example, we know that WWI lasted from 1914-1918 (or 19), and we know exactly when it began, and what the consequences would be.
But Alice didn't know. And Elsie didn't know.
Frankly, it's eerie to be scanning these sometimes, knowing what we know now...realizing that someone is writing to their friend three days before the world- their world- changes forever with the outbreak of WW1.
I only hope, as I relieve my childhood memories of looking at these postcards, that the writers and recipients were truly having 'the time of their lives' as described on their notes to each other. Not everyone came home, in fact, lots of men never came back at all, which is why people like Elsie ended up with Canadian soliders, emigrating as they did after the first war.
Sometimes I wonder if, a hundred years from now, someone will stumble upon our words and wonder the same thing: "did she know what would happen?".

"You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.”  Harriet Martineau

The why

My husband asked me today, "Why are you doing this? How will anyone know it even exists?". I suppose those are valid points, because I haven't figured out how to let other people know. Maybe, while I cruise favourite places like Retronaut, my tag line will lead a few people here. I think in the end what matters to me is that I have put these images out there: 'there' being the wide world of our beloved interwebs, where maybe someone will happen on it by happy surprise in the same way I find the bulk of my fun-things-to-look-at. And maybe by committing these to the web they will continue to exist long after any potential physical disaster befalls the actual postcards themselves (though they've made it a hundred years so far).

I have to believe there are other History Creepers like me out there, that enjoy looking at things that remind us that our ancesors were human and had their own full-colour world, and weren't just static black-and-white figures in a history book.

The sights of Birmingham

 These were from a trip one of Elsie's friends took to Birmingham.
Seems Muriel had an okay time. I'm always amused at the almost inane conversations...no wonder in Canada we talk about the weather all the time!

Wishes

There are many themes throughout this postcard collection: Gladys Cooper, Devastation of War, Christmas Greetings, Easter Greetings, and Well Wishes. These are from the Well Wishes section (and believe me, they said it a LOT, it must have been a heck of a time to be a postal worker, with all these postcards zipping about).

Portions of the postcard collection have not been addressed or stamped, and are in fairly pristine condition. Some have been sent through the mail, so it's quite interesting to read the backs of them sometimes, for both the penmanship and sentiments. For any of those  that I think might be interesting to fellow voyeurs like myself, I will also include the back of the postcard.