Postcards from Australia: Christmas Edition (Part Three)

This is the third and final of the three special Christmas editions of the Postcards from Australia series of posts I ran earlier in the year (you can find the two previous Christmas editions here and here).

This postcard was sent by William Joseph Henry BATEMAN and his family in Australia to his sister (Dorothy) May back home in England, wishing her “Hearty Greetings”. I just hope that the image on the front is not the BATEMAN’s home!

I am not sure what was in the cut-out on this one, the verse suggests it was wattle (acacia) blossom, but sadly this has long since disappeared.

Postcards from Australia: Christmas Edition (Part Two)

This is the second of three special Christmas editions of the Postcards from Australia series of posts I ran earlier in the year.

This postcard was sent by William Joseph Henry BATEMAN and his family in Australia to his dad back home in England to wish him Season’s Greetings for Christmas 1912.

Although the picture is not really what we would call a Christmas scene, I do like the little verse:

As a token sweet
Accept this golden wheat,
Produced on Austral soil
After many months of toil.

The grains of wheat have vanished, they probably fell out years ago, but I do wonder if someone might have tried to grow them at some time!

Postcards from Australia: Christmas Edition (Part One)

Back by popular demand (well not really, back because I saved these cards specially) are three special Christmas editions of the Postcards from Australia series of posts I ran earlier in the year.

Like the previous postcards this was sent by William Joseph Henry BATEMAN and his wife and family back to his family in England. As you can see below this one was sent to his mother “with love and best wishes” for Christmas 1912, presumably in an envelope as there is no stamp or postmark.

The artwork on the card (The Call To Breakfast) is obviously by the same artist as the previous postcards I featured, but I wouldn’t really consider it a Christmas scene. I am not sure what is in the cut-out at the top, the plastic film covering it is disintegrating, revealing the “chips from the nuggets of gold”.

Picture Postcard Parade: Souvenir from Brighton

Postcards from Brighton, Sussex are not particularly rare, having been a tourist destination for many years there must have been millions of cards produced. This one probably doesn’t actually show Brighton beach and I am sure if I looked I could find examples with the names of many different seaside resorts on them.

The reason this appealed to me was the colour and design, it is such a bright and cheerful card. That is why I have featured it today, after last week’s snow scenes and the generally grey weather we have had, I decided that things needed brightening up!

I have no idea who published this card, it was posted on the 23rd August 1907 to an address in Camberwell, but the handwriting is a bit dodgy so I can’t be sure, or actually make sense of the message. Hopefully it will brighten up your day to!

Picture Postcard Parade: Selsey Arms, West Dean

Continuing the West Dean theme, here is yet another postcard from the parish of West Dean (near Chichester), Sussex. This one is not in brilliant condition, with some foxing (those brown spots) particularly noticeable in the sky and on the road.

This card is unused but appears to be from the same series as some of the cards I have previously featured, the earliest of which was dated 1918, so I would imagine we are probably looking at the similar date for this one. Unfortunately the name of the photographer or publisher is still a mystery.

The building on the right is the Selsey Arms Public House, and I love the fact that there are two carts parked outside, along with their horses and a push bike leaning up against the front. The owners presumably inside enjoying some refreshment.

Just to the left of the photographer (out of shot) is West Dean school. I don’t know the names of the houses further up the road on the left. None of my maps (or those online) seem to name them, there appears to have been three houses, and at one time the house at the far end was the Post Office.