Old Postcards of Garforth
For many years I saved images of old Garforth postcards from eBay so that I could expand the old Garforth photos section on the website. Recently having collected several years worth I sat down to sift through the images and realised at that point I would quite like to collect the actual postcards!
As such I am now trying to collect as many as I can, of course some quite rare ones have gone on eBay in the last few years so I am now frustrated with myself for not buying them. If you have any Garforth postcards to sell please let me know.
Most of the cards are used elsewhere on the site in the correct places however they are also laid out below by card series for anyone who is interested; I needed to do this to keep track for myself anyway. There are more than you think when you start to try and catalogue them given Garforth was only a small place.
Where possible I have noted the sequence numbers for the cards and presented them in order. Any card which starts NN means 'no number' i.e. I have assigned my own NN numbers just so I can keep track of them. Over time I may be able to give some of the NN cards their correct numbers.
Bramley
Bramley were a local Leeds company based in Cross Gates just up the road from Garforth. The company address is given as Bramley, Publisher, The Electric Press Printing Works, Cross Gates, Leeds
There are several Bramley cards without numbers, those which are sequenced are e.g. ‘B19’. Other cards are simply marked with ‘B’ in one corner or just the number. There are many gaps in the sequence here which could be of other places or missing Garforth cards.
The Bramley numbers do not seem to be unique for example different cards from different places may be marked ‘B19’, perhaps the numbers on the Garforth cards are therefore only for Garforth.
There are also colour versions of some cards which are tinted versions of the black and white ones. Postally the cards seem to be dated from around 1900–1920.
Frith
The Frith company is still in existence today as Francis Frith who sell many items with their old images on as well as old maps etc.
Frith cards are marked with a place code (of their own devising) and a number. The place code for Garforth is GFH so all Frith cards for Garforth are marked e.g. ‘GFH3’. This sequence is also used for the Lilywhite cards (the owner of Lilywhite later ran Frith) however the cards in each series are not the same i.e. Lilywhite GFH2 is different to Frith GFH2.
There are 46 Garforth images in the Frith archive (51 including tints). Currently only a subset of those appear on the main Frith website for purchase. Historically not all Frith images of a given place were published as postcards so it's unknown how many of the 51 might physically exist other than those shown below.
The Frith cards are dated from either c.1955 (GFH1-19) or c.1965 (GFH20-46).
Not all Frith cards in the gallery below can be viewed at full size due to copyright restrictions, all Frith cards are copyright The Francis Frith Collection and those that can be viewed are used with permission.
Hobbies
I don't have any information on this company, there is only a single card but the back is marked ‘HOBBIES’ above postcard but without an address. There do not appear to be any sequence numbers and the card is an early one posted in 1905.
Hoult
This selection of cards seems to have been created by Mr. A. W. Hoult who ran Garforth Post Office. They were presumably created by him for sale from the post office itself and as such may all be solely of Garforth.
There are no sequence numbers with each card just being marked A. W. Hoult, Post Office, Garforth to the front and no further details being printed on the back. Postally the cards seem to be dated from around 1920s.
Laycocks
The Laycocks cards are marked with ‘Laycock’s Real Photo Series’ but no other company details. There was an E.W. Laycock who had a newsagents in Church Lane, I believe these cards will have been created by him for sale from his shop. As such all of the Laycock’s cards are likely to be of Garforth.
There are several Laycock’s cards without numbers, those which are sequenced are numeric only e.g. ‘123’. There are many gaps in the sequence however the sequence runs into the thousands and I would not think that there will be that many card in existence.
Postally the cards seem to be dated from around 1900–1920.
Lilywhite
Lilywhite were a local company based in Halifax though they made cards for lots of places. The company was in operation from 1909–1931 so the cards cover this period.
Some Garforth cards seem to have been subcontracted by a local company so the back reads Published for E.W. Laycock, Church Lane, Garforth, near Leeds (see above).
The cards are sequenced the same as the Frith ones as noted above however there are a few which I am unsure of the number due to the size of the images available. Once again there must be many missing from this set as there are gaps in the sequence and they are all of Garforth.
Milton Woolstone
The Milton cards seem to be a series by Woolstone Brothers, the cards read The Milton Series for Local Views, Woolstone Bros, London, EC1, Printed in Saxony on the back.
The cards are all unsequenced and are just printed with the name of the view on the front. Postally the cards seem to be dated from the 1930s.
Parkinson & Roy
Parkinson & Roy were a local Leeds company, the address is given as Parkinson and Roy, The Studios, Kelsall Street, Leeds and is printed on the front of the earlier cards. Later cards just say ‘P&R Leeds’ on the front.
There are several Parkinson & Roy cards without numbers, those which are sequenced are numeric e.g. ‘123’ and a few seem to be suffixed e.g. ‘41B’. There are many gaps in the sequence some of which are likely to be Garforth cards.
Postally the cards seem to be dated from around 1900–1930.
Phototype Co.
The Phototype Company were a local Leeds company, the address is given as The Phototype Co., Ventnor St., Leeds.
The cards all seem to be sequenced with a four digit code e.g. ‘1817’ which I expect a lot of people would easily confuse with the year of the photograph. Several of these cards I have not seen the back of but expect they are by the same company as the lettering (which is distinctive) and sequencing on the front is the same. These seem to be uncommon so I have no idea how many Garforth cards they did. The cards seem to be from the early 1900s.
Richards
Richards were a York based company with the address given as Richards R.B. & E.D., Strensall, York.
There are not many cards from this company and I have guessed at a couple based on the lettering style on the front (specifically the writing of No with the super scripted o is common to them all). They all seem to be marked e.g. ‘No7’.
Postally the cards seem to be dated from around 1910–1930.
Unknown
These are miscellaneous cards from unknown publishers.
