r Posting picturesllofagou towns and vi es By local historian Paul Rendell
P
ostcards were introduced in Britain in 1870. At this time, they were issued exclusively by the Post Office and were simple plain cards with a pre-printed stamp. It wasn’t until 1894 that the Post Office permitted postcards produced by other printers to be sent through the postal system. Photographs were black and white or of a vignette type with edges which faded away. Only the address could appear on one side of the card with the other side devoted to the picture and space for a message. In many cases the picture covered most of the card, leaving little room for anything else. In 1902 the Post Office changed its rules and permitted pictures to appear on the front of postcards and both the message and address on the reverse. These postcards were produced by a wide variety of publishers, many national companies like Frith, yet some local shops, such as Pillar & Son of Tavistock, published
their own cards and other publishers like Horns and Miller from Devonport, Plymouth would send their own photographers out to take images of Plymouth and the edge of Dartmoor including Clearbrook. In Ivybridge in 1905, F. J. Andrews was based at 15 Fore Street as a publisher and they worked with Charles Smallridge, a photographer, also of the same village. From around 1906, Charles Smallridge also developed his own range of postcards of images, mainly of Ivybridge. These postcards not only provided visitors with images of their holidays, but were used as promotion for other people to visit the area. Many cards were kept after they had been posted; lots of Charles Smallridge’s postcards can be found in private collections today, my own included. William James Chapman was born in Exeter, Devon, in 1830. An early diary shows that in 1859 he received
Dartmoor Ponies by Chapman & Son 48
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