Sherborne - The Conduit. And Alan Turing.

            The Postcard

A postally unused postcard of Sherborne published by the Photochrom Co. Ltd.

The Photochrom Co. Ltd.

The Photochrom Co. Ltd. of London and Royal Tunbridge Wells originally produced Christmas cards before becoming a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards.

These mainly captured worldwide views as real photos, or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color. 

They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist-signed cards in named series as well. The huge number of titles that Photochrom produced may well exceed 40,000.

In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier, and began publishing similar photo-chromolithographic postcards after securing the exclusive English licence for the Swiss photochrom process. 

This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints, their colours were much softer and reduced.

Apart from their better known photochroms, they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.

One of the largest unnamed series that Photochrom produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravure. Many of these cards were simply hand coloured with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distinct appearance. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.

Photochrom postcard series include:

-- Night Series - Line block halftone over a blue tint depicting London.
-- Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photo cards.
-- Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.
-- Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.
-- Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in colour.
-- Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.

Sherborne

Sherborne is in north west Dorset, and is situated on the River Yeo.  The town features in Thomas Hardy's Wessex as 'Sherton Abbas'.  The film musical 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips' was filmed in Sherborne,  and the film 'The Browning Version' was partly filmed at Sherborne School, which incidentally was formerly attended by Alan Turing.

The Conduit

The hexagonally-shaped Conduit, which is a Grade 1 listed building, is in Cheap Street.

ukattraction.com tell us that the Conduit once housed washbasins for monks.  It was built by Abbott John Meere in the 16th. century within the cloisters of Sherborne Abbey.  

While most such structures were destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries, the Conduit survived by being moved outside the abbey for the benefit of local people.

Milwards

70 or so years after this photograph was taken,  Milwards the shoe retailers (there are shoes on display inside and outside the shop window) still have many branches in the UK, although they are no longer operating from the premises on the right of the photograph.

Taken on: June 29, 2009

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

nostalgic

Sherborne

conduit

Alan

Turing

Photochrom

Royal

Tunbridge

Wells

Dorset

River

Yeo

Thomas

Hardy

Wessex

Sherton

Abbas

film

musical

Goodbye

Mr.

Chips

filmed

Browning

Version

Hexagonally

shaped

Grade

listed

building

Cheap

Street

washbasins

monks

Abbott

John

Meere

cloister

Abbey

destroyed

dissolution

monasteries

local

people

Milwards

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Sets appears in: • UK

Camera: HP Scanjet djf4100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	HP Scanjet djf4100
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Paint Shop Pro Photo 12.01
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