The most random set of postcards you’ll see all week…

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Random. We love random here at TVTA, and some of these postcards I’ve had since the late 80s, while others are recent additions. Featuring films, tourist destinations, public events, rude anagrams, Kate Bush and, yay, Cartman – “You will respect my authority!!” There’s a little something for everyone here…

Where possible I’ve included the publishers of the postcards, relevant dates, photographers and artists.

Enjoy the scans!

Late 19th century lithographs 

Tourism

South Wales and Normandy

South Wales. Precision Ltd. Colourmaster International. Date unknown.

Normandie. Artaud Pére et Fils. Gabycolor. Date unknown.

Lourdes, Costa Brava, Bordeaux, Eiffel Tower and Blackpool.

You shall not pass!

Some Birmingham facts and trivia alert!

The postcard below depicts Sare Hole Mill in Moseley, Birmingham, UK. Titled: ‘View from the pool’, the image was taken in 1921.

This location in Moseley is one of ‘The Shire’ inspirations Tolkien drew from when he lived in Birmingham and later wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the noughties I used to live just up the road from this mill and was lucky to take a tour inside when it was operational. When taking my frequent walks through the surrounding natural park, bogs and woods, it really felt like I’d been transported to Middle England and ‘The Shire’. It’s easy to see how Tolkien fell in love with this place and became inspired.

Sare Hole Mill, Moseley, Birmingham, UK. View from the pool. 1921.

Just for fun #1: Opposite the mill was a café called ‘The Hungry Hobbit’. Just for fun #2: It never escaped the attention of residents of Birmingham that the name ‘Sare Hole’ is an anagram of a certain body part. Just for fun #3: A couple of districts away lies a road called ‘Dog Pool Lane’, where visitors often had fun whitening-out the letter ‘L’ of ‘Pool’. A couple of other districts away is ‘Cockshut Hill’ – I won’t say how a certain letter was changed on that signpost. Safe to say though that upwards of Birmingham, in North Warwickshire where I lived for a spell, was a place called ‘Harts Hill’, where some cheeky little beggar changed the first letter ‘H’ to an ‘F’. Farts Hill. Don’t you just love British toilet humour?

But seriously, Birmingham… below is a postcard I picked up from the Weoley Castle Museum (where I lived nearby for two spells), depicting an archer on a decorated floor tile circa 1350.

Decorated Floor Tile circa 1350. Discovered during excavations of Weoley Castle. Birmingham. UK. Silk and Terry Ltd. Birmingham.

London

Tower of London. Published by The Ministry of Works. Date unknown.

Film, Music and Art

And lastly… South Park –

“You will respect my authority!!”

South Park. The London Postcard Company. 1999.

Thanks for looking 😀 We’ll let you know as soon we get our hands on another bunch of random postcards!

15 thoughts on “The most random set of postcards you’ll see all week…”

  2. Love those Mucha ones, but I’ve spent a bit of time zooming around the Tower of London one as I know that area very well. Fascinating with the vehicles parked up the side. That whole area has been pedestrianised for a long long time now.

    There’s a rubbish barge thing on the river, as in stores rubbish, and transports it up the river about half a mile. The same design is in operation today !!

    Aside from the presence of the cars giving the game away it would’ve been feasible for that shot to exist without Tower Bridge on the right. It’s often assumed to be far older than it actually is, probably because it’s such an iconic landmark but it’s actually fairly modern.

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    • That’s interesting about the parked vehicles giving the game away when many towns and cities are now pedestrianised – on the flipside though, looking at certain images of say 60s-era British roads and only seeing a small set of cars parked up (think The Beatles Abbey Road) is quite amazing, when you consider how many roads and sidestreets are double-parked with cars and vehicles halfway on the road and pavement.

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  4. Hi TVTA. I don’t suppose you have a postcard from Wetwang do you? (<Don’t worry I did spell that correctly!) This East Riding of Yorkshire village’s name raises giggles quite often. Great collection of pics.

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