An unposted card - Warwick Castle

One of the few unused cards in John's collection.

Many happy returns - birthday 1904

On June 8th, 1904 John celebrated his 14th birthday. He left school soon afterwards and started working in his father's butcher's shop. Late in his life, he recorded:

"I remember wanting to go into the Omnibus business when I was a lad, but in my young days' children whose parents had a small one-man business had to help in that business. No doubt if I had any brothers, no doubt I should have done, but being an only son I had to follow in my father's footsteps. By doing so I pleased him and enabled him to die happy. I am positive that I have gained by doing so."

He was a shareholder of Southdown from its beginning and left a collection of timetables starting from around 1920. These were donated to the Amberley Industrial Museum and some are on display in the Southdown Garage exhibit.

June 7th 1904 was a Tuesday. The first electric tram service in Preston started its run at 7.10 am on that day.

An image of Matlock Bath

A post card from Edith with no message. I am beginning to think that the post card album that these cards are from may have been a Christmas gift from Edith to her brother in 1903. Edith was by far the biggest sender of cards and 1904 appears to be the peak year for cards to John.

January 15th 1904 was a Friday.  

Guys Cliff from Idle Moments

This is the third post card that Edith sent to John from the Idle Moments 'free gift'. She used this one to ask for some nice fat to make dripping.

July 5th 1904 was a  Tuesday. This was a day that Winston Churchill MP for Oldham did not speak in the House of Commons.

Brighton to Brighton

By January 1907 John was sixteen and a half and his sister had gone from using Johnnie to J. and Edie to E.K. Economy of space or something else?

January 9th 1907 was a Wednesday.

Amberley and Houghton Prize Band.

This post card posted in 1906 is a photograph taken by Wheeler, a Horsham based photographer. His studio was at 4 North Street in the town so was this photograph taken from the first floor? Horsham has over the past 110 years and the buildings have been replaced. 

Late in his life, John noted down some of his memories and this image reinforces his comments about fashion. 

"Fashions have changed out of all recognition, no one would dream of going out without a hat, man or woman and a woman would never even show an ankle. In fact, dresses were so long that they used to drag along the ground sweeping up the dust."

I have not yet discovered who sent this card, but think that it was one of John's Horsham relatives.

August 31st, 1906 was a Friday. Roald Amundsen reaches Alaska in his vessel Gjoa; the first ship to sail the North West Passage on that day.

4 Picture Post Cards presented weekly with "Idle Moments".

When I posted the first of these post cards from my grandad's collection I failed to notice that they were presented weekly with "Idle Moments". As a former newsagent I should have noted the weekly part of this. Idle Moments was a weekly magazine that was published for 1d per week.  The interesting Canvey Island org website has helped me resolve this.


May 23rd 1904 was a Monday and Miss Ellen Terry and her entire London cast were performing at the Theatre Royal, Manchester. 

Postcard to Mrs Waring

In 1906 Matthew Povey was 76 and his wife Jane 79 and the 1891 census revealed that they took in boarders at that time. This card would seem to suggest that Mrs Waring and her husband were in residence at 51, George Street and able to invite someone to come and stay for a week. Were the Waring's boarders or had they been employed to look after Matthew and Jane?

August 13th 1906 was a Monday. The Brownsville Affair.

Postcard of Shap Abbey

A card from Edith, no message and unsigned. Edith did have a distinctive style of handwriting.

January 19th 1904 was a Tuesday. Wilhelm II: Into the Abyss of War and Exile, 1900–1941, by John C. G. Röhl covers this date twice, from the looming war between Russia and Japan to concerns about the capability of the German Navy. 

Ripon Cathedral from the River Skell

Dear Johnnie, more meat, please. John left school at age 14 to work in his father's butchers shop. Late in his long life, he recorded some of his memories from when he was young. Of starting work and joining the family business he said :

"I remember wanting to go into the Omnibus business when I was a lad. No doubt if I had any brothers, no doubt I should have done, but being an only son I had to follow in my father's footsteps. By doing so I pleased him and enabled him to die happy. I am positive that I have gained by doing so."

March 3rd 1905 was a Friday.

The MetroPostcards.com website has this information about the publishers W&K.

Wildt & Kray   (1903-1915)
15 Lensden Place, London, England

A publisher of a wide variety of postcard types. These included many view-cards that were artist drawn. Those from Ireland sometimes had shamrock borders. They also produced many real photo cards, sepia art reproductions, greeting cards, depictions of dogs, and people in the form of vegetables. These cards were manufactured in England. Reinthal & Newman printed many cards with them.

No Message from Edith

Another card from The Wrench Series. The hugely informative MetroPostcards.com have the following information on the company that produced these cards:

"Evelyn Wrench   1900-1906
London, England
Publisher of a great variety of picture postcards in varying techniques. They produced tricolor printed series on famous houses, sports players, literary characters from Dickens, scenes from plays, ships and trains, pictures from Punch magazine, art reproductions, comic cards, and greetings, all printed in England. They also published many views-cards in color, sepia, and a black & white series depicting resorts on a cream paper printed in Saxony. Wrench became a Limited company in 1902 and in 1904 they changed their name to Wrench Postcards Ltd. Because they refused to distribute any postcards but their own, supply eventually outgrew demand and they were out of business within two years. "

June 6th 1904 was a Monday. It was the date that James Joyce chose to use for his novel Ulysses.

Woodham Church, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

Happy Christmas from Dave. I have not been able to find evidence of him from census records so probably not one of John's Horsham cousins.

This card is post marked 9 am on 24th December and the sender would have expected it to be delivered in time for Christmas. Cost a ha'penny.

Christmas Eve 1906 was a Monday. Reginald A. Fessenden made the first entertainment radio broadcast on that day.

Your loving sister Edie

This is the seventieth card from John P. Goodridge's Edwardian postcard album published on this site. 1904 was by far his most active year of collecting. His half-sister Edith sent 26 of the cards most posted between 1903 and 1905.

One card was sent to his father and three to his mother. Fifteen were sent to his grandmother, Mrs. Povey at 51, George Street.

These postcards give a different perspective of my granddad who I knew only as an elderly man who my brother described here:

"In later life John seemed a private, somewhat distant Victorian figure ('children should be seen and not heard', 'every time a sheep baas it loses a mouthful' etc)."

November 21st 1903 was a Saturday.

A Postcard from the first Empire Day!

Percy and Edith were hoping that John would have visited them the 24th May 1904. This was the first Empire Day to be celebrated in the United Kingdom. Since 1958 the 24th May has been celebrated as Commonwealth Day. 24th May 1904 was the Tuesday that followed the Whit Monday Bank Holiday.

The 4 picture post cards presented weekly.... with idle moments look as though they were on a single sheet that was perforated to allow each card to be torn off.

A Bournemouth card from Auntie

Another card from Auntie Fanny, interesting use of the limited space. The message suggests that John was a regular visitor to his Aunts in Horsham. Between 1901 and 1911 the Goodridge sisters moved from 36, Gladstone Road to Chalfont in Depot Road, Horsham. The house remained occupied by a descendant of the Goodridge family until August 1999 when the sisters great niece, Frances Graham came to the end of her long life.

March 1st 1907 was a Friday.

Another Boscombe postcard

With a series of postcards from Boscombe and Bournemouth it would appear to suggest that Edith had a holiday there in 1905.

July 28th 1905 was a Friday. Hansard recorded the Second reading of the Alien Bill.

Lord Belper said "It is acknowledged that a whole sale immigration from the eastern part of Europe has been going on for some time".

Evidence of a cup of tea drunk long ago

Edith had a dog called Kuma and liver seems to have been a regular feature of its diet.

Another card by publishers Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis Co., Ltd. Their hand coloured collotypes were printed in Germany.

September 14th 1905 was a Thursday and the front page of Commercial Motor was all about rival motive powers, internal combustion, steam and electric.

A view of Leamington

A postcard from John's Auntie Fanny hoping that he has 'a nice time this holiday'. As the card was sent on April 1st she was referring to Easter school holiday. The post mark is incomplete so the year that this card was sent is not immediately obvious.

The publishers, Pictorial Stationery Co. Ltd. of London do give a clue as they state that this is an "Autochrom" (Color Photo) postcard. The Autochrome Lumière is an early colour photography process that was patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France. It was first marketed in 1907.

Easter Sunday in 1907 was March 31st and therefore could have been the year this card was sent, but John was 16 years old and was working in the family butchers shop by then. In 1904 Easter Sunday fell on April 3rd, with the wording of the message and the April 1st post mark it would seem that 1904 is a more likely year. That would suggest that the Pictorial Stationery Co. were early adopters of the Autochrome Lumière method.

From E.K. to John

I have previously labelled postcards from the collection with this six pointed start logo as no publisher shown. Looking at the brand logo more closely I searched for websites that could help. The first that I looked at was Dave Tylcoat's Postcards. He has a list of publishers that and G.D.&D. in a six pointed star would appear to be Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis Co., Ltd. of London.

September 3rd 1905 was a Sunday.

Edith has visitors

Edith says that the ladies from H had arrived and were going to stay for a fortnight.

I think that it can be assumed that the 'ladies from H' refers to Edith and John's aunts, Sarah and Fanny Goodridge.

August 10th 1904 was a Wednesday. The Battle of the Yellow Sea was fought on that day between the Russian and Japanese navies.

A Norfolk Broads Windmill by Moonlight

John P. Goodridge's post card collections has several cards post marked Horsham within it. This one has no message and is unsigned. a comparison of the hand writing of the other senders that I have so far posted on this site do not seem to reveal who sent this PC. There have been Sarah, Fanny, Mary, Laura, Lily and Charley. None of them are a match for the style on this card. As I am sure that there are more cards from Horsham in the collection the sender of this card may well still be able to be revealed.

March 5th 1904 was a Saturday. The Spectator was published on that day.

The Lighthouse, Lynmouth

Comparing this card with others sent from John's relatives in Horsham it would appear to have been written by his Aunt Fannie.

March 5th 1904 was a Saturday.

Shakespeare Cliff, Dover

A post card for Edie about meat, the Mutton was lovely, It seems that Edith and Percy had dogs as she is asking her brother to send over or save some liver for them, 'any sort will do as they are not particular.'

November 19th 1903 was a Thursday.