Another in the old postcard series.....this time it's Bradford or should that be Bratfud?

Here is another one of the picture postcards I bought from the lovely antique shop in the lovely victorian market in St Helier - capital of the lovely island of Jersey. I make no apologies for using the word lovely repeatedly in the sentence as two dictionary definitions of lovely are 'charmingly or exquisitely beautiful' or 'having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye' and all of the above things I've described as lovely are exactly that to my eyes, heart and mind.

I love the faded yet vivid colour of the angled images of Bradford. I'm not sure when it was taken except the main image of the Town Hall features a trolleybus and so it must have been taken prior to 1972 as tinternet research tells me the trolleybus transport system  in Bradford was in operation until then.

Bradford along with Leeds was one of the first cities in the UK to have a trolleybus system and Bradfords lasted the longest in the UK. Both cities opened their trolleybus systems in June 1911. Leeds last trolleybus was in 1928 though trams lasted in Leeds until 1959 and Bradford's last trolleybus was on March 26th 1972.

I can't make out the registration plates clearly enough to get an idea of the date that way either and I am not enough of a transport nerd to be able to determine what years the traffic could be except late 60's maybe? and although the card has been written on, it must have been hand delivered as there is no address or postmark or stamp on it. Just a name and a message of'Dear Pauline, Renie, Bernard and Marcel - hope you all had a nice time Xmas, did you have any snow? thank you all for ....... see you soon,love from us all .....xxxx

The dots are where I can't make out what the words are.

Th Town Hall itself looks much the same today though the square round it and the roads look very different, Lister Park still has a lake but as I've only ever been in the depths of winter I've never seen anyone messing about in a boat on it though the tinternet tells me you can hire rowing bots and pedalloes for the very reasonable price of £5 for half an hour and £5 deposit throughout the summer and on weekends in October. I don't think I've ever got the train to Bradford Forster Sq though I have to Bradford Interchange often as that is the nearest station to my beloved Media Museum.

I also love Bradford Industrial Museum which I haven't been to for a while and must remedy this forthwith, I was at the Media Museum last week to The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window and Disappeared which was very very good indeed - I left Pictureville with a big grin on my face - rather like the grin I have on my face when I look at these lovely old postcards.
    

Another In The Series Of Old Postcards - 'oh Manchester, so much to answer for....'

I bought this postcard whilst on holiday the other week in Jersey. There is an antique shop on the edge of the very wonderful victorian market (complete with fountain and fish) and every time I visit Jersey I have to go to the market, make a good luck wish as I throw money in the fountain making sure not to hit a fish (the money is collected and goes to local charities) and buy old postcards from the antique shop.

There are a lot to choose from and I just pick at random rather than going through every single one as otherwise my entire holiday would be taken up with choosing and I'd get stuck in a paroxysm of postcard related indecision and I also set myself a budget - this year it was £2.

So I got 8 postcards and this is one of my favourites of this years choices - partly because it is my home town, I love its urban plain-ness, its over enthusiastic yet sweetly faded colour, the fact that the sun is shining, the incongruity of a red London bus outside the Town Hall but mostly because it shows Piccadilly Gardens as it was and remains in my memory - ie green,flowery, sunken and the statues still black with industrial grime. I miss the (hopefully) defused sea mine that used to collect pennies for those who had been in peril on the sea. However I never went to the toilets on the edge of the gardens as my Mum warned me not to as 'they were full of weirdos' instead we saved our pennies for the no less full of weirdos if you asked me Littlewoods (where my Nana used to work as a cleaner) or Lewis where we went to see Father Xmas.

The other thing I love about this picture is the first few letters of the name Pauldins on what is now Debenhams. It has been Debenhams ever since I can remember but it was always called Pauldins by my Mum and my grandparents. Ahh happy memories.

On the reverse is a message to Mrs Le Claire of St Brelade from Eve saying 'having a lovely time here. We are going to the Lakes for a walk on Tuesday, trust the wedding arrangements are going well.' I wonder if the wedding did go smoothly and whereabouts in the Lakes Eve and whoever went walking. It was posted in Chorlton Cum Hardy on 20 June 1975 and it cost just 5 and half pence to post.  

Photographic Work

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