Cards with Logo, "Bedwell" and no number

These cards have a white area below the picture for a message. The back has the distinctive logo with the words "Bedwell Series Bedford" and the words "For Inland Postage only this Space may be used for communication."  The message area is the same size as the address area. The card was

The Bridge, Standon è

Market Place, Hitchin

Hermitage Road, Hitchin

Cards with Logo and number

The back is identical, apart from the missing word Bedwell) but there is a small serial number on the picture side.

28 High Street, Redbourn è

Card Numbers (Hertfordshire in Bold)

•  9 Entrance to Woburn Park

• 10 Apsley Guise Church (posted 1905)

• 13 Melbourn

• 14 Melbourn

• 15 Melbourn

• 16 King Henry VII Lodge, Woburn Sands

• 20 The Springs, Ashwell

• 22 Three Counties Asylum, Arlesey

• 28 High Street, Redbourn

• 54 Apsley Hill, Woburn Sands (posted March 1904)

• 57 Stonely Green, near St Neots

• 82 Old Warden

• 204 The Moon, Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire

• 261A Willian (Garden City) near Hitchin

• 262 The Lodge, Walworth Road, Hitchin (posted 1904)

• 264 Ickleford (coloured)

• 265 Walsworth Road, Hitchin

• 573 Hockliffe Church

• 704 Redbourn Church

• 764 St Edmund's College

• 805 Old Warden (posted 1904)

• 806 Old Warden

* Full Picture with Number

No writing area on picture side, Same back.

1009 Amwell Church and Bridge è

• 1001 Market Place, Ware (dated 1905)

• 1004 Parish Church, Ware

• 1009 Amwell Church and Bridge *

• 1014 Turvey Church (posted 1904)

• 1074 Knebworth Church (posted 1907)

• 1082? Harpenden Common

• 1084 Harpenden (posted 1904)

So far no cards have turned up where the back reflects the changes in postal regulations in 1904-06 and there are few examples of coloured post cards. Some Real Photograph "Bedford Series" pictures, with a totally different picture, and apparently later, have been seen online - but none connected with Hertfordshire and there is no reason to think that they are connected to Ernest Bedwell. At least one early coloured card had the publisher initials "W.H.S." - possibly for W. H. Smith - suggesting that the words "Bedford Series" were used by other publishers - and only those with the distinctive logo are relevant here.

My assessment, based on the present selection of cards, is that Ernest's post card publishing activities in Hertfordshire were unsuccessful and no new Hertfordshire cards were produced after 1904. There was enormous competition in the early days, and I have seen no Bedwell cards for the larger towns, such as St Albans and Watford, where there would have been a large market, but also a lot of competition from well-established local photographers and the big boys like Hartman and Valentine. Ernest seems to have ended up producing cards for some of the smaller towns and villages - where both competition and  sales volume would have been lower, and for smaller places the re-order rates could have been negligible in the short term.