A club set up in Aberystwyth is getting ready to celebrate its 35th birthday.

The Aberystwyth Postcard Club was set-up in 1984, although it had a slightly different name back then, as its current secretary explained.

“Jackie Day of Penparcau a former employee at Bronglais Hospital for many years and his colleague Peter James of Bronant formed the Aberystwyth Bronglais Postcard Club in Oct 1984,” said Peter Henley.

“A few working at Bronglais Hospital at that time shared a common interest in collecting and decided to form the club.”

According to Peter, the club’s early meetings were held at the hospital, later moving to the former Young Women’s Christian Association building in North Parade.

“Under its current title the members moved to the St David’s Club in Eastgate in 2000,” Peter added.

Today the club meets at St David’s Church Hall in Bath Street, and Peter has been looking back on the group’s highlights.

In 1996, under the guidance of their secretary Martin Lewis, former Principal of Aberystwyth Further Education College, they produced an illustrated book of archive postcards from the members’ own collections.

The book covers over 130 years of photographic history of Aberystwyth.

The club members are entertained throughout the year by guest speakers, with in-house competitions and visits to see local collections at the National Library of Wales, the County Archive office, the Royal Commission of Ancient monuments and the Ceredigion Museum.

They also hold ‘bring and buy’ events ending the season in July with a summer trip.

“The membership has maintained a level of about 20 people for several years,” said Peter, “and there is always a welcome for those wishing to join.”

Peter can be reached on 01970 828173 if anyone would like more information about the group and their activities.

Postcard collections are not limited to those of Aberystwyth, as Peter explained.

“There is a huge variation of subjects collected varying from local interest to Lucy Atwell cartoons, cats, aviation, railways and the ever popular Photochrome [a process for producing colourised images from black-and-white photographic negatives].”

See this week’s south papers for the full feature, available in shops and as a digital edition now