High Street, Newport, Monmouthshire

A very early postcard - posted May 1900 with Queen Victoria's head on the stamp.

Notice that the message had to be written on the same side as the picture - the reverse was reserved solely for the address ("The address only to be written on this side"), i.e. an undivided back. This was due to a Post Office regulation. The situation changed from January 1902 when the reverse of the card could be divided by a vertical line allowing the address and message to be written on this side and the whole of the front of the card to display the picture. This lead to a sudden boom in the number of postcards sent from 1902 onwards - though of course some of the old stock of undivided back postcards were used over the next few years.