You might think that this is another post in my series on the Lost Pubs of Brighouse (a series which will be returning to a computer screen near you soon, I promise), but it is not. This vintage postcard shows Kirklees Bar House, the house used for the collection of tolls at the toll bar along the Dewsbury to Elland Turnpike Road, just to the east of Brighouse. The toll bar is long gone, but in some places the name remains : for example, I live close to Bradley Bar which was another toll bar on the same road. The postcard was sent in 1913, just over 100 years ago.
12, Lane Ends Midgley, Luddenden Foot.
Dear Ethel,
I hope you have got Laura to say she will come on Sunday as I shall be expecting you if the weather keeps as it is at present, which we want it to do, hoping this finds you all in the best of health.
Your sincere, Aunt
The card was sent to Miss E Baldwin, South House Farm, Wadsworth, Hebden Bridge.
I wonder if people will be reprinting text messages 100 years from now and wondering whether Ethel ever made it to her Aunt's - or whatever the equivalent will be these days?
I think the era of handwritten letters and postcards is sadly coming to an end. Much like the end of film cameras. The problem for the future is going to be sifting through the enormous volume of useless and pointless information. Old Auntie's 1913 message has charm from her ink pen and her choice of postcard illustration. New Auntie's 2013 text message, if it manages to get saved for 2113, will have nothing to connect it to the author and nothing to savor stored away on whatever pass for a computer drive one hundred years from now.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, Alan, for the link last week to the British Newspaper Archive. In the first three days of membership I have solved dozens of riddles that I had despaired of ever finding answers to. The details found in the many British regional newspapers with their concentrated tiny type has opened up a tremendous number of doors to new stories. (I even signed up in time to take advantage of a new year's discount too.) The British Library and the internet are a great example of technology, unlike cellphones, that restores my optimism in the future.
Your post and the above comment illustrate the best and the worst of new technology. The jury is out...
ReplyDeleteI guess the toll wasn't high enough to pay for tarmac.
ReplyDeleteTwo interesting topics on this post. I have wondered what will happen over the long term to electronic messages. I think technology will change far more than we could imagine and it will be in our lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of toll houses being called 'Bar Houses'. Have you found out who the aunt was and who is Laura in relationship to Ethel and 'Aunt'?
ReplyDeleteIs it far Luddenden Foot to Hebden Bridge?
About 3 miles along the valley
DeleteCouldn't agree more with Mike Brubaker's comments. A good post!
ReplyDeleteI love old postcards...especially the handwriting. I suppose it will all be gone in another generation!
ReplyDeleteIs it raining on you? I imagine you're paddling a canoe to the local pub every afternoon! ha.
Much will be lost in translation. Send a postcard today! Maybe we should start a movement! :)
ReplyDeleteCan't picture much if anything electronic saved for 100 years...
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, there will never be anything electronic comparable to the postcard. People, not me of course, have such an overload of images and saved data that our children will be too bored to try and cipher through it all. Maybe though, they will look at the blogs with a bit of nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. Now I'm thinking of all the scrapbookers and Pinterest fans and whatever else is out there. Sheer gluttony.