THE cheeky postcards made famous by Bamforths of Holmfirth are back where they belong – at the seaside.

Gift shops in Whitby and Scarborough are among the first in the UK to launch the new range of Bamforth’s saucy seaside postcards.

But they are also back in their true home, Holmfirth, where the company produced millions over the years.

A range of the saucy cards has been re-released, with many of them seeing the light of day for the first time in 20 years.

Ian Wallace, who now owns the Bamforth’s collection, said: “Let’s all have a good laugh now, we need a good reason to smile in these difficult days.

“There are some good old firm favourites in the collection and some hilarious images that have not been seen for many years, but they are just as topical today as the year they were created.”

Bamforth Postcards were the world’s largest publisher of comic postcards. Over 90 years, the company which was set up in Holmfirth published approximately 50,000 designs, poking fun at politics, fashion and sex in its various guises.

Many of the cards bore the same type of characters – the buxom blondes, the hen-pecked husbands and the jolly drunks.

It is the first time in five years that Bamforth, using the postcard publisher Judges, have targeted seaside resorts, their ‘shop window’ for almost a century.

The cards are being sold through just six outlets across the UK, including The Chocolate Box in Holmfirth – just a couple of hundred yards from the original Bamforth premises.

Click on the link below to view our gallery of some of Bamforth's cheeky postcards from down the years!

Mr Wallace said he was delighted the cards had come “home”, along with the designs now on mugs and coasters.

“It would be great to have something permanent in Holmfirth.

“There used to be a postcard museum and we’d love to recreate something in the area so that people who visit Holmfirth can trace back the Bamforth’s history. Hopefully, that will happen some day.

“People still love the slapstick, saucy humour and we have found that the favourites are by the classic designers of the past, artists like Taylor and Fitzpatrick.

“We have found that there is a new market for them with a generation who don’t remember the displays of postcards in every seaside resort.”

Mr Wallace, 65, bought the firm Bamforth & Co 11 years ago and now owns the rights to more than 60,000 of the postcard images.

Not all are saucy and many are scenes of Huddersfield from the past century or evocative pictures of children.

Mr Wallace, who is originally from Huddersfield, said: “This company was making films before Hollywood and then they went on to produce these postcards, which are an institution. They sold millions and millions and millions of them. They were sold all around the world. People still love them”.

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