THE ways Furness people made use of postcards more than a century ago can be traced in a research programme.

The Edwardian Postcards project has seen 3,000 postcards collected by Lancaster University and studied to see who was making use of them and why.

So far, front and back images of 1,000 cards, together with transcriptions of their messages, can be inspected on a searchable database.

Historical records have been added wherever something useful is available, especially from the 1901 and 1911 censuses.

You can try it out at http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/EVIIpc/

Among the postcards on the database is one showing the home of industrialist and railway boss Sir James Ramsden.

The first mayor of Barrow lived in country splendour at Abbots Wood, near Furness bbey.

Barrow’s stately home was sadly demolished in the 1960s.

The postcard was sent from Kendal Street, Barrow, on May 17 in 1906 to Brow Top, Workington.

In the brief message Leslie describes the experience of Maths Stage II as “simply ghastly”.

A card showing the ruins of Furness Abbey was posted on April 3 in 1904 to Southey Street, Keswick.

Another of St Mary’s Church, Ambleside, was posted from the Lakeland resort to Rawlinson Street, Barrow, on September 13 in 1907.

So good was the Edwardian postal system that a festive greeting was sent from Barrow by Cissie on Christmas Eve in 1906 with the expectation it would reach Handsworth in Birmingham before Santa.

Even more optimistic was Hannah Beresford who sent a card from Manchster to Anson Street, in Hindpool, Barrow, at 8.30pm on Christmas Day in 1905.

Her parents would be pleased with the festive message but perhaps less so with the postcard image of a city public house.

Hannah wrote: “Had a good look round through the town last night.”

That might sound like a pub crawl but Hannah had loftier ambitions.

She wrote: “Splendid sights. Have just returned from a walk through the park and cemetery.”

In the heyday of the postcard, during the Edwardian age from 1901 to 1910, it offered an opportunity for the exchange of everyday messages with pictures at very low cost.

This opportunity was not to be available again until the contemporary digital revolution.

Up to six postal deliveries a day were being made in major cities and six billion cards were sent in the period.

Dr Amanda Pullan, research associate on the project, is also looking for donations of Edwardian postcards, or scans of them.

If you would like to offer something posted between 1901 and 1914 to the project, contact EVIIpc@lancaster.ac.uk or call 01524 510830.