Cleethorpes Foreshore - postcard posted 5 August 1903

Posted on 5 August 1903, this postcard shows a busy summer's day on Cleethorpes foreshore at the beginning of the twentieth century. Hundreds of people crowd the beach and promenade, while bathing tents line the sands and pleasure boats lie alongside one of the timber landing stages in the foreground. More than a seaside view, the postcard records everyday life in Edwardian Cleethorpes during the summer of 1903.

The message on the reverse is brief:

"Arthur & I are here for the day." "Aunt M."

The card was addressed to Miss Cowing, Thulston, Elvaston, Derby. The 1901 Census records only one Cowing family living at Thulston: that of Ralph Cowing, a land agent, and his wife Emma. Their household included two daughters, Elenor and Edith, together with a younger son, Ralph, Ralph Cowing's unmarried sister Jane, a governess and two domestic servants. As the postcard was addressed simply to "Miss Cowing", it was almost certainly intended for either Elenor or Edith, who would have been about nine and eight years old when it was posted in August 1903.

The postcard bears a ½d King Edward VII stamp, paying the standard inland postcard rate, and uses the divided-back format introduced in Britain in 1902, allowing both the address and a written message to appear on the reverse. By 1903, postcards had become one of the most popular forms of everyday communication in Britain.

Today, the postcard is important not only for the view it preserves but also for the personal message it carries. More than 120 years after it was written, the few words on the reverse still provide a direct connection with the people who spent a summer's day in Cleethorpes in 1903.

From the Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum collection.