Top of Reigate Hill Suspension Bridge

Canon Series

Posted 15th July, 1905 to Miss H. Newbery,

Stationer, High St, Crawley, Surrey

63, St Paul's Churchyard, London. E.C.

Dear Sir,

Our Mr. Bernard Watkins hopes to have the pleasure of waiting on your on Monday next with our latest lines

Yours faithfully,

Mitchell & Watkins

The above card records that Bernard Watkins was working for Mitchell & Watkins - and was almost certainly the joint owner  of the company.

The following cards show that prior to the visit Miss Newbery was already selling cards of the type supplied by Mitchell & Watkins which had been printed with her names and address as publisher.

Crawley Parish Church

Burnett's, 1 Three Bridges Road, Crawley

London View Co 25

Inland (1) back

West Crawley Church

London View Co Ltd

Brighton Road, Crawley

Photo by Belchamber [in stamp box]

London View Co. Ltd.

Printed in Saxony 18 April 1907

Three Bridges Road, Crawley

Photo by Belchamber

London View Co. Ltd. Printed in Saxony

1907

The Church Patheway in Winter, Crawley

London View Co. Ltd.

Printed in Saxony

Perhaps it was a desire to be different that prompted the London View Company of Long Lane, E.C. to issue about six collotypes showing Crawley after a heavy snowstorm in February 1907. The roads are blanketed in snow, the trees (in many cases long-lost elms) have heavily encrusted branches, and few people are about. The mood is one of cold silence, stillness, even loneliness.

The London View Co. was a short-lived firm. It started trading in 1905 (at Aldersgate Street), and ceased operations in 1907. The Crawley cards, which were printed in Saxony, are marked "Photo by Belchamber" in the stamp space, and were probably sold at the Belchamber shop. It is not known whether the Crawley firm commissioned the London View Co. to produce the cards using their photographs, or whether they took the photographs on the instructions of the London View Co. 

Sussex Postcards