SIDMOUTH, England -- If one holds the sepia-tinted postcard and stands in the same spot where the photographer stood at the start of the last century, one is stunned by the changes to the facades of the hotels and shops that line Sidmouth's seafront. There are virtually none.
A couple of coats of paint, no doubt, the odd television aerial and a new sign outside the Marine pub, but Sidmouth folk are proud that their town has changed so little in the last century.
I came across the postcard rooting through a cluttered antique shop on Fore Street. It was among dozens of other images of the town dating from a time when Britain's Empire was at its zenith, the Union Jack flew more frequently and men and women apparently took a little more care with their dress.