Many of us will have fond childhood memories of sending a holiday postcard to friends or family.
But the humble postcard tradition is in decline, national charity English Heritage has warned.
A survey of 2000 adults commissioned by English Heritage found that 86% said they grew up sending postcards and 62% said they’d want their children to carry on the tradition.
However, 52% said they never sent postcards at all, while 18% said they sent them less than once a year.
Matt Thompson, English Heritage’s conservation, curatorial and learning director, said the research showed that postcard sending risks becoming “a distant nostalgic memory”.
To help inspire children to take up postcard-writing, English Heritage has commissioned three limited edition postcards, designed by children’s illustrators Nick Sharratt and Sir Quentin Blake, which will be available to collect for free at eighteen of its historic sites this summer.
As part of English Heritage’s ‘Great British Summer’ events, the sites will also be offering family activities inspired by holiday traditions, including fairground activities, circus skills and puppet shows.
The eighteen sites are:
- Audley End, House and Gardens, Essex
- 1066 Battle of Hastings, Abbey and Battlefield, East Sussex
- Beeston Castle, Cheshire
- Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland
- Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire
- Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, South Yorkshire
- Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight
- Dover Castle, Kent
- Eltham Palace and Gardens, London
- Framlingham Castle, Suffolk
- Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden, Warwickshire
- Osborne, Isle of Wight
- Pendennis Castle, Cornwall
- Scarborough Castle, North Yorkshire
- Stonehenge, Wiltshire
- Walmer Castle and Gardens, Kent
- Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire
- Wrest Park, Bedfordshire
On Saturday 18 July, Dover Castle will also host an exhibition of around 800 postcards depicting the castle, dating back to the 19th century. It was assembled in a private collection by the castle’s former head custodian Pat Cunningham.
