Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Avon gorge c1906

This is somewhat of an emergency blip although I do like it. Yesterday I was doing some printing and while waiting for a print to finish I started rummaging through my old family desk bureau. In the drop down section there are many small alcoves for putting papers and writing paraphernalia. 

We have filled them with delightful period card cases, designed to hold and protect post cards, which my mum collected ever since she was a child. I opened the smallest of the many card cases, which must have contained about fifty old post cards, and I flicked through them.  Most of them seem to have been sent either to my mum or to members of her family, as well as cards collected on holidays which were never sent. Later in her life she started to buy up post cards at auctions and secondhand shops.

I was delighted to find this post card as it is a view I've photographed several times, as has virtually anyone who has visited Bristol docks and the famous Floating Harbour. I am sure it was taken at high tide from the edge of the lock gates leading out into the tidal River Avon and this view is taken looking downstream or out to sea which is about ten miles to the west. I think these cards were hand tinted photos.

On the back of the card it has several interesting bits of information. It was part of the Avonvale Series of card produced by J. B. & S. C., and it is a very glossy and thick print stuck onto card, which you can see where the edges of the card have frayed.

It has a light green 'Half Penny' stamp using an image of King Edward VII and it has a postmark of 'Bristol 12 30pm March 13th 1907. I don't know of the person, a Miss Lamb, to whom it was addressed but she lived in the same town, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where my mother grew up and where her father's family hailed from. In 1900 her grandfather was Lord Mayor of Southend-on-Sea.

On the other cards there are lots of names of members of previous generations of her family with addresses which I'm pleased about as I may be able to trace some family history. My mum did manage to create an extensive family tree on her side of the family, but there is nothing on my father's side, which I hope to research further having learnt that they hailed from Devon in the early 19th century.