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Brief History of Leeds Postcards 1979 Richard Scott, an editor in educational publishing and political activist, started publishing postcards from his home in Leeds. 1984 Richard moved Leeds Postcards into Aire Street Workshops in centre of Leeds....and one became three: Richard Honey joined and set up Leeds Distribution to sell the cards to the Trade; later in the year they were joined by Christine Hankinson who had a background as an editor in educational publishing in London. This was during the Miner's strike and through front page advertising in The Guardian Leeds Postcards raised over £50,000 for The Miners Strike Fund with their sets of cards, published in conjunction with the NUM. 1986 It was decided that Leeds Postcards would become a Co-operative. It would buy the Sole Trader business from Richard Scott. Richard Scott, Richard Honey and Christine Hankinson became the founding members/Directors of The Northern Trading Co-operative T/AS Leeds Postcards. 1988 Leeds Postcards added three more members : Steve Edwards, Alison Sheldon and Dinah Clark. 1989 Richard Scott resigned. 1995 Financial difficulty through recession in early nineties/ high staff/ overheads meant that staff had to go down to 4 day week. Steve Edwards and Dinah Clark resign. 1996 Although we had a website - donated and built by wizzkid and fan Harry Wykes and run by Poptel; a large order from Waterstones, who wanted to stock a new range of intelligent humour Christmas cards by Leeds Postcards, and a trade stand at Singapore Stationery/card Fair donated to establish Leeds Postcards and its politics in the Pacific Rim. The Co-operative Bank with whom we had a very small overdraft (£5,000) refused to increase it to pay our wages. Our overheads and expenses were high and we had to go on half pay. Alison Sheldon and Richard Honey resigned. This left Christine Hankinson to wind up the company. The bank would not allow an extension of the overdraft and demanded immediate payment. At the time it was the longest running co-op in the UK. To pay off the debts Christine sold off as much bulk stock as posible (40 tons of cards were recycled). The co-op ceased trading. The bank pursued Christine for the outstanding debt as it was legally 'joint and several' which meant that any of the member/directors could independently be charged. Finally the debt was paid off by Christine and bought core stock and archives and purchased of Rights and Title of Leeds Postcards. She was determined to carry on publishing from her home in Headingley. 1997 Leeds Postcards Started publishing cards again. Cath Tate Cards who had bought a lot of the stock in bulk became Trade Distributor. (Unfortunately most of the Trade believed that Leeds Postcards had folded and was now run by Cath Tate Cards. This was never the case.) It was at tto laugh at the ludicroushis time that Leeds Postcards was asked to supply the new Oxfam Bookshops with spinners of cards for their new bookshops and, thanks to Graham Draisey who established the Oxfam bookshops, this became a lifeline for the business. That and by keeping the overheads very low and doing everything inhouse from design to accounts has meant Leeds Postcards has survived. 2000 One of the highlights was an exhibition of Leeds Postcards at Leeds City Art Gallery which ran for 6 months in 2000. It later went on tour to Northern Ireland, Cumbria and South Korea! In 2008 Thea Mallett built a new Leeds Postcards website with shopping basket technology. This is www.leedspostcards.co.uk and has become a very successful mail order site with orders coming from all over the world. It still has the same mission: To publish without favour or deals with distributors or funders. Fearless and free. For justice and kindness. We just use the freedom of the market... some cards as easy sellers, often funny, they help the serious ones that will always flounder in the marketplace but deserve to be there, need to be there. To give a howl for the oppressed to mock the oppressors. And remind us of the sayings of the wise. Send them, put them on your wall, prop them up. SO SEND ONE TODAY and thanks for reading and your support Christine Hankinson and Thea Mallett
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