PC_Bedford_0352Unfranked RP postcard - Pub: Lilywhite, Halifax No 31 (Ref: PC_Bedford_0352)
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PC_Bedford_0355The Harpur Centre The Harpur Centre was home to Bedford Modern School before the majority of the building was demolished in 1970 to make way for the shopping centre in its current guise. The school’s east facade was designed by Edward Blore, who is most notable for his work on Buckingham Palace. It was retained and is Grade II* listed.
PC_Bedford_0357Unused postcard - Pub: F Frith & Co Reigate BFD 32
PC_Bedford_0358Unused RP postcard - Pub: Rexatone
PC_Bedford_0359RP postcard franked Bedford c 1910 - Pub: Lilywhite 51
PC_Bedford_0361Unused postcard - Pub: Rush & Warwick Art Printers, Bedford
PC_Bedford_0362Unused postcard - Pub: Fidelity Colour Printers for Bunyan Meeting Free Church - Original watercolour by K C Lynch
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PC_Bedford_0379Novelty pocket postcard franked Bedford (Ref: PC_Bedford_0379) Design by J L Biggar
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PC_Bedford_0385Novelty pocket postcard franked Bedford 1920 (Ref: PC_Bedford_0385) Design by J L Biggar
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PC_Bedford_0387Unused RP postcard No 1042 - Pub: A T Covinngton, St Mary’s Street, Bedford
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PC_Bedford_0390Unused postcard - Blake & Edgar’s “Real Photograph” series - The Embankment after snow 24 April 1908
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PC_Bedford_0394Crescent House College - At No. 19 The Crescent Mrs Smith had run a boarding and day school for young ladies since the early 1860s. The 1871 Census shows that,with her son acting as assistant, she had a music and a French teacher and two governesses to teach 24 resident scholars. Mrs Eleanor Carroll, wife of Charles Carroll of the British Consular Service, became Principal of the College in 1879. The 1881 Census shows that she, together with her sister and three governesses, taught 17 boarders and some day pupils. By 1885 she had realised the school needed to move to larger premises and she purchased land at the Conduit Road corner of Bromham Road and built two large houses and by 1890 the school had opened in Bromham Road with place for 160 pupils. These premises later became part of the Convent School. The school had a resident French teacher (possibly the writer of this card - franked Bedford and Versailles in 1903 - the arrow points to her “petite chambrette") and the master who taught German at the two boys schools also taught German at the Crescent School. In 1913 Mrs Carroll retired (she died at Eastbourne on the 31st December 1940 aged ninety) and the school was taken over by Miss Flora Jane Fry, English teacher at the School, and Miss Laura Hammond, who had been a pupil at the school, and they re-located the school to 11 Linden Road. In 1925 Miss Fry retired and she died in Bedford in September 1941. The School closed in about 1935 with Mrs Jarrett Lucas as the last principal.
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PC_Bedford_0406-BoatersNostalgia card - Luton July 1928 - Heatwave leads to revival of traditional straw hat industry
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PC_Bedford_0408Unused Bedfordshire Heritage Collectors postcard BE-119 : Kempston Clockwise from top left : King William IV, All Saints Church, St John’s Almshouses, River Great Ouse Photographs by Gordon Flanagan
PC_Bedford_403-Fire1912Photograph by J.C. Brown, published as a postcard by G.H. Stonebridge of Midland Road, Bedford, showing the destruction by fire of the premises of Longhurst and Skinner on Midland Road in January 1912. Longhurst and Skinner was a department store specialising in furniture. Although the building was entirely destroyed by the fire, the shop was subsequently rebuilt and remained in business under its original ownership until 1978. Augustus Hill At about 3.00 a.m. on 11 January 1912, a fire had broken out in the rug department on the first floor of Longhurst & Skinners, the building burnt to the ground. Four firemen received burns, including Captain Augustus Hill. Augustus Hill was born in Bedford in 1850 and served with the Bedford organisation for forty-two years from its foundation in 1870 and had been Captain since 1889. He saw the brigade develop from the days of the ‘manual’ to those of the steam fire engine. He was one of the pioneers of the National Fire Brigades’ Union - for some years, serving as Hon. Secretary of the South Midlands branch of that Union. Captain Augustus Hill was in command at the 1912 fire and was injured about the hands and face. He died on 19 March 1912 aged sixty-two-years, after a sudden seizure.