Looking back: 'Straw donkeys, backscratchers and sombreros!' Remember those holiday souvenirs?

One thing is certain, no matter how full the suitcases are when setting off, there will still be room for bringing ‘stuff’ back!

A survey by a travel specialist, has revealed that more than £16 million is wasted on useless holiday ‘tat’ brought back home from holidays abroad either as souvenirs of the holiday or as presents.

I can certainly remember the days when, as a child, any relatives or friends who travelled abroad, usually to Spain, presented my sister and myself with straw donkeys, wooden back scratchers, sombreros, fans, or dolls which decorated our bedrooms until mother threw them out!

When visiting Spain ourselves, an important part of décor back home in the 70s was the empty Chianti bottle in which you put a candle, being used to inject a bit of cosmopolitan glamour into your Vesta Paella suppers!

You weren’t immune from holiday ‘tat’ if you holidayed in England. Many sideboards displayed objects like lurid birds, boxes covered in small seashells or ‘a present from wherever!’. They say you can tell an old person’s house by the tat they have horded! Not mine though!

One of the most important things about holidays was sending of postcards. The first day of holiday was always spent purchasing and writing a couple of dozen cards. No matter that, in England, the weather could change dramatically the next day, and the holiday completely deteriorate, or, if you were abroad, the likelihood of the cards reaching the UK before you returned was slim, at least you had completed this most important of all holiday tasks.

Forty years ago, a third of all Brits sent postcards home from their holidays, but today very few do.

One of the main reasons of course, is the use of technology. No matter where you are in the world, people walk round glued to their mobile phones sending daily texts just as they do at home.

When I was young, postcards were a part of our holiday for my sister and myself as far as providing interesting reading matter. The best ones were always the cheeky ones featuring buxom blondes, hen pecked husbands or jolly drunks with red noses! We didn’t always understand the humour, and we certainly didn’t ask our parents what they meant, but they were much more interesting than views of Bridlington.

There are still saucy postcards on sale in many seaside towns despite complaints from people that they have no place in family resorts, whereas other people view them as part of British seaside history and culture. You can’t please everyone as there have been frequent comments about bog standard postcards with scenic views which make Scarborough look like the French Riviera!

A spokesperson from the leading UK postcard manufacturer at that time, Bamforth’s of Holmfirth said, that whilst they never published anything obscene, the more vulgar the humour, the better it sold, so it was obviously what the public wanted!

The postcards were part of British life until they entered a period of decline when the sending of postcards lost its popularity and the company officially closed in 1990.

Many people today associate Holmfirth mostly with memories of ‘The Last of the Summer Wine’ and its endearing stars, and I’m sure Compo in particular would have loved the saucy postcards!