TRWBM:2002.114 photograph, on post card, Holy Trinity Church, Stallard Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire 1912
Holy Trinity Church:
The foundation stone for the church was laid in 1835, taking just one year to complete and was built in response to the ever growing population of Trowbridge. It was noted that the population of the town had grown to almost 12,000 and the current parish church, St James, could hold barely one twelfth of this. This put in motion plans to build a new, larger church to allow the parish to be split. Fund raising appeals were launched by Francis Fulford who was the rector of St James at the time. Projected cost for the church was £4,ooo. The total cost of the church was £5,251 (£313,720 today), towards which a grant of £1,676 was provided by the Church Building Commissioners. Of the 12,000 population of Trowbridge, around 7,000 attended the ceremony in which the foundation stone was laid.
An unusual build
Unusually, the church is not oriented east/west, but rather north-east/south-west. It is a stone built church in Early English style, with a cruciform plan with angle chapels and large tower on south east arm. The church was consecrated by the Bishop of Salisbury on 1 November 1838, a plaque on the south wall states that on consecration it held seats for 1033 parishioners. It has had many internal changes over the years including : 1852 a new organ was installed in the west gallery; 1861-2 new heating apparatus was installed; 1866 the first marble wall monument was erected; 1871 the south transept was turned into a side chapel for weekday services.
In the 1970s, the development of the new Trowbridge inner relief road involved the demolition of a few buildings near the church, and the creation of a one-way traffic-light controlled roundabout around the church, effectively isolating it. It soon gained the local nickname “The Church on the Roundabout”.
Picture postcards:
Hungary produced the first postcards in 1869, and Britain introduced them just a year later. They came in two different sizes and included an imprinted halfpenny stamp, which the British Post Office commissioned. Senders printed messages or business correspondence on one side, leaving the other blank. Their low cost meant they were half the price of sending a standard letter.
The postcard revolutionized communication, allowing quick, punchy, and cheap correspondence without a formal letter’s fuss. People could write and send postcards quickly, with postal collections and deliveries sometimes happening as often as seven times a day!
The first editions
The first picture postcards in Britain date to 1894 when the Royal Mail gave approval for the mailing of private picture-postcards – until this point postcards allowed only for the address on one side and writing on the reverse. This was the dawn of picture postcards and soon there would be all kinds circulating – cartoons, seaside scenes, buildings of interest and moral messages. Picture-postcards enjoyed their heyday between 1900 and the First World War, when they were the standard method for delivering short messages. This continued throughout the Second World War but started to decline as a regular form of communication when telephones became more affordable and more readily available. Post cards became more of a novelty item, being sent more as reminders of holidays or interesting visits.
