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Month: April 2016

Postcards to Mrs Pye

Postcards  to  Mrs  Pye

Postcards to Mrs Pye is part of the “Occasional Postcards” series.

Pye Austria SF PNG
Sporthotel, Igls, Austria. 1961.

Mrs Pye, along with Mr Pye, lived in Brandville Gardens, Ilford, Essex, nine miles to the east of London.

Ilford 1 SF PNG

In the late 1950s, when this small collection of postcards starts, Ilford was still part of the county of Essex.

Ilford Manor Road SF PNG
Manor Road, Ilford, 1955.

 By the end of 1965, when the last postcard in this collection was sent to Mrs Pye, Ilford was no longer in Essex. It had been absorbed into Greater London.

Package holidays to continental Europe from the UK didn’t, literally, take off in a big way until the mid 1960s.

Lockheed Euraviae SF PNG
Package Holidays about to take off: Euravia.
Bristol175Britannia SF PNG-4
Package Holidays about to take off: Britannia.

It took a bit of money, and a bit of initiative, even if booking through Thomas Cook & Co to travel and stay in Paris, or Switzerland or Italy before the mid 1960s.  These Technicolour countries of wine, street markets and foreign sights and smells and customs were usually glimpsed in films such as the 1955 David Lean directed  Summertime with Katherine Hepburn falling in love in Venice.

Katherine Hepburn Summer Romance SF PNG

Or Paris with Gene Kelly in the 1951 An American in Paris.

An American in Paris SF PNG

A free-wheeling Gene Kelly in Paris… well, in a Hollywood studio set, but the establishing ‘shot on location’ shots gave an authentic taste.

And then there were the saturated Kodachrome pages of National Geographic magazine in the 1950s that in between head hunters in Borneo would feature a spread of the castles and steep vineyards from the perspective of a Rhine cruise boat.

In the postcards that follow, the house number of the Pyes in Brandville Gardens has been brushed out to protect the privacy of the present occupants.

________________

1958

Pye Gweek Cornwall SF PNG

“Lovely little village with beautiful walks all round…..” 

Pye Gweek back SF PNG

____________________

Pye Menton back Stamp

Pye Menton SF PNG

“Arrived here 1.30 pm… after delayed journey due to London train being late… and missing our connection at Paris!…. Plenty of sunshine and not excessive heat.”

Pye Menton back Franking

Pye Menton back SF PNG

_________________

Pye Paris SF PNG

“The more I see of Paris the more I like it….Can find my way easily on the Metro now….Have taken Valerie up the Eiffel Tower….  she is thrilled with it all.”

Pye Paris back pc logo

Pye Paris back SF PNG

_________________

1961

Pye Austria SF PNG

“Weather still “scorcher” although had 3 short thunderstorms.  Tonight, hundreds of bonfires burning on mountain tops to celebrate mid summer’s day…..” 

Sport Hotel CU SF PNG

Austrian stamp

Pye Austria back SF PNG

_____________

1962

Pye Interlaken SF PNG

“We are going on this little railway this afternoon…. “

Pye Interlaken back SF PNG

____________

Swiss stamp

Pye Jungfrau SF PNG

“We are enjoying a lovely holiday & think Lauterbrunnen a delightful spot… “

Jungfrau back PNG

________________

1963

Pye Geneva SF PNG

Geneva corner SF PNG

Geneva 2nd corner SF PNG

“… We have had several drives through the forest of Xmas trees.  Yesterday we had a barbecue picnic in the Jura mountains  We collected our own wood, made a fire & roasted our meat.  Grand fun… “

Pye Geneva back SF PNG

_____________________

1965

German stamp

Pye Germany SF PNG

German corner2 SF PNG

German 2nd corner SF PNG

“We left Luxembourg yesterday having spent 5 days with my cousin and family…  Greetings to all the grand girls.”

Pye Germany back SF PNG

___________________

For the British, travelling abroad has changed tremendously since the 40 or so years since the postcard from Aachen was sent to Mrs Pye at Brandville Gardens, Ilford.  Countries and continents that were exotic, and unreachable for millions  are now one cheap flight away.  In 2015 Majorca and Tenerife were the most popular holiday destinations for the British, followed by the Algarve, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Orlando in the Unites States, Gran Canaria,  Benidorm, Crete in Greece and Disneyland Paris.  Snapping on their tails are developing tourist hotspots in Turkey.  The top five countries for holidays by the British, in order, were Spain, Greece, the US, Portugal and Italy.

Remarkably, London, nine miles from Ilford, is now the most tourist visited City in the World, according to the annual Master Card Global Destinations Cities survey.  The Top Four visited cities in 2015 were, in order: 1. London, 2. Bangkok, 3. Paris and 4. Dubai.

But some things don’t change.  Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland is still regularly visited and is very much as it was in 1962….

Above Lauterbrunnen SF PNG
Above Lauterbrunnen, October, 2008.    Photo Pete Grafton.

……and the Sporthotel in Igls, Austria is still there, still run by the same family, the Becks.

sporthotel igls
Sporthotel, Igls.

Sport Hotel today

Different motors, though….

_________________

The small collection of postcards to Mrs Pye sent between 1958 and 1965 were found in a bric-a-brac shop in Exeter in 2014.

__________________

Next in the Occasional Postcards series:  Postcard from the Eastern Front, due Winter 2016 – 2017.

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______________________

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Author petegraftonPosted on April 9, 2016April 19, 2016Categories Photography, Political & Social History, PostcardsTags Aachen Ponttor, Brandville Gardens Ilford, Britannia Airways, Cranbrook Road Ilford, David Lean, Euravia, Exeter, Frank Gratton Mullion, Gany postcards Paris, Gene Kelly, Geneva Place du Bourg de Four, Gweek Cornwall, Interlaken Schynige Platte Bahn, Katherine Hepburn, Lauterbrunnen, Manor Road Ilford, Menton Alpes-Maritime, Paris, Paris L'Arc de Triomphe, Penpol Postcards, Sporthotel Igls, Summertime film, VeniceLeave a comment on Postcards to Mrs Pye
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