THE history of Barrow’s postcards and early photographers featured in a talk given after the annual meeting of the Furness Group of Civil Service Motoring Association. 

More than 200 images were shown by Bill Myers at the meeting held at Barrow Cricket Club. 

The earliest photographic image was created in 1827 and by 1850 studios were being set up throughout Europe and America. 

Sending a photograph through the post was to take rather longer – due to Post Office regulations. 

In 1869, the first official postcard was designed by Dr. Emmanuel Herrmann of Hungary. 

The first picture postcards were produced around the same time in Austria. 

In England from 1870 it was only possible to send “postal stationary” – plain cards with the message on one side and the address on the other with a pre-printed stamp/

From 1st September 1894, the Post Office allowed publishers to issue their own cards. 

A halfpenny adhesive stamp was to be added to these cards before posting. Several manufacturers produced cards. 

The first publisher to include pictures to the cards is believed to have been George Stewart of George Street, Edinburgh. 

What helped to make them popular was the discounted postal rate. Since the introduction of stamps in 1840 a letter cost one penny but a postcard was a halfpenny. 

By 1900 millions of postcards went through the postal system every week, and a high proportion finished up in the family album. 

Photographers were often clever businessmen and captured scenes which would not date and so could be sold for several years. 

There was even a collecting craze. Leading London producer Raphael Tuck fed the frenzy by offering a £1,000 prize for the biggest collection. 

Most of the earlier Victorian photographs were printed on thin sheets of photographic paper and mounted on stiff card to go into specially produced albums. 

The larger versions were called cabinet photographs and the smaller ones were called cartes de visit. 

They were similar in size to a visiting card or a modern credit card and often had details of the photographer on the back – where extra copies could be bought. Several photographers worked from studios in Barrow – none of which are known to have produced postcards in the Edwardian era. 

They included William Harvey Dodds at the Cavendish Chambers in Duke Street and A & G Taylor at 115 Duke Street. A & C Findlay, the photographer and toy dealer, was at 240 Dalton Road. You could visit J. J. Taphouse, the artist and photographer, at 15 The Strand, Barrow. 

He was patronised by the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Hartington and Barrow’s first mayor Sir James Ramsden. 

Lawrence Findlay, who also painted portraits, worked from 236 Dalton Road and James Hargreaves was in Ramsden Square. Shirtcliffe J. Priest – also called Sutcliffe on some census returns - was born around 1858 at Gringley on the Hill in Nottinghamshire.

In 1901 he was living and working from 22 Paxton Terrace, Barrow. 

He is described as being aged 43 and working as a photographer on his own account. 

He lived with his wife Elizabeth, aged 53, who had been born at Force Forge in Lancashire. In the 1880s he was based at William Street, Barrow.