From the Thorley Archives
Thorley Postal History
The heyday for picture postcards had a comparatively short lifespan of 25 years between 1895 and 1920. The Post Office had relaxed the rules by allowing an illustration on one side and the address with a message on the other of a postcard. There had to be several deliveries a day to cope with the demand. Some places in London had five or six deliveries a day. With the doubling of the postcard rate from 1/2d to 1d in 1918 and the growing popularity of the telephone the universal habit of sending postcards faded. They had provided a cheap written form of communication being the e-mails of their time. Most messages were short such as 'Happy Birthday', 'Having a lovely time here', 'Get better soon', etc. Some of the messages of the time however do provide fascinating social insights into the lives of ordinary people not dissimilar to our use of e-mails and texts today. The happenings detailed in these Thorley postcards relate to peoples' experiences of family events at the beginning of the 20th century.
Bill Hardy
February 2011