Historical Yeovil postcards uncovered

AN intriguing postcard has been discovered by staff at South Somerset District Council's Community Heritage Access Centre in their notable social history collection.

The Photocrom Lettercard consists – as the name suggests – of six postcards in one continuous sheet:  Five depict Yeovil scenes, featuring High Street; The Borough; St. John’s Church and Nine Springs and the last shows all five images together.

The six ‘cards’ then fold up inside a yellow envelope for posting.  Interestingly, two different postage rates are payable, depending on how the lettercard is completed.

The postcard was found by Joseph Lewis, heritage information assistant, while searching for information in response to a local history enquiry.

Joseph said:  “We respond to around 20 local history enquiries each month.  These can be about tracing names of people or small businesses for family history research; photographic copying requests or arranging guided tours.

"Enquiries often involve searching our electronic and written databases to check on what we have in our collections but we tend not to spend long periods of time with specific objects or documents.  This usually only occurs with a tour or research visits. Therefore, happy surprises can happen.

“On this occasion, we were searching for football-related photographs because of Yeovil Town’s recent promotion to the Championship tier of football.  As any researcher knows, the best thing about researching is looking for one thing and discovering something completely different!”

The discovery has prompted CHAC staff to explore the collection for other postcards . They have found “orders for peonies” from Kelways of Langport, “South Petherton at Night” and  hand-tinted images of Ninesprings.

Messages on old postcards can be just as interesting as the images, giving valuable insights into life at the time.  One example at CHAC is a postcard depicting the use of a saw powered by a Petter’s stationary engine.

“Surprisingly people continue to be fascinated by postcards,” said Joseph. “Even in our instant messaging era, we still write a postcard home or buy one as a memento, to keep a small part of the place we visit on holiday and to accompany our own photographs.”

The council's spokesman for leisure and culture, Cllr Sylvia Seal, said: "The Photocrom Lettercard gives anintriguing insight into how Yeovil was represented in the 1940s and 1950s, the places chosen to be photographed, how the beauty spots have changed and which ones remain."

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