Postcards picture the past

Around 50 postcards are now on display at the Museum of Cannock Chase and bosses hope they will jog the memories of visitors for an ongoing history project.

The collection belongs to Ray Smith, a volunteer at the Valley Road museum, who has amassed thousands of postcards of scenes from across the West Midlands.

The 69-year-old, retired operations manager who lives in Cheslyn Hay, has been collecting postcards for 15 years and this is the biggest collection of his postcards of Hednesford ever.

It is hoped the postcards will stimulate the memories of visitors to help the Chase Heritage Trail project, which is investigating the area between Hednesford and Rugeley.

Mr Smith said it was a fascinating but sometimes expensive hobby.

"It is only part of a larger collection of thousands of postcards that I have of Hednesford, Cannock and the surrounding area," he said.

"But we hope people will enjoy it and may even be able to recognise some of the faces that appear on them to help the museum's history project."

He added: "I started collecting because my mother always had a postcard that my father had left when died.

"After that I saw a postcard fair advertised, found out what it was all about and started on a collection of mining disasters.

"A postcard is an actual piece of history from the time it was made, but it also carries in a lot of cases an emotional message on the back and I find it absolutely unbelievable."

Julie Hood, researcher for the Chase Heritage Trail project, would like to hear from anybody with an interesting story to tell about the area. "The postcard exhibitions have proved quite popular in the past and we thought we would build on that and put some more on show," she said.

The exhibition will be on display until May 6 and admission is free.