I recently fell into a rabbit hole. I was looking for some Edwardian posters to stick on my station building, and ended up with pages of illustrated notes about GWR posters, poster boards and adverts.
I’m sharing them here in case it’s of use to someone. This first installment is about the posters themselves, with an emphasis on pre-grouping days.
My station building is modelled on the real one at Newbury. Pre-WW1 photos of Newbury show numerous GWR posters all around the building. Most are too fuzzy to make out, so I’ll be selecting and making my own posters.
Perusal of photos shows 2 overall types of GWR posters:- The colourful pictorial travel posters, advertising attractive destinations or new high-profile routes (e.g. top row above, issued 1899, 1903-11 period and 1921-29 period respectively).
- Stylistically simpler poster-size announcements of specific services and excursions in two or three tone colours (e.g. bottom row above, issued 1901, 1910, 1919 respectively).
The former are well-known and available from the trade, the latter tend to be overlooked although they actually appear to have been more numerous at stations. There were also smaller “flyer” style bills, though I haven't looked into those.
Pictorial posters
The GWR’s production of pictorial posters peaked in 1935 with 68 different posters (the other trendlines refer to media articles about posters). The graph is from Josef Thomson's PhD thesis on GWR posters. The thesis is focused on the posters’ “imagined landscapes”, but does provide some general info.
I looked for examples of posters from my main 1900-1914 layout period, but GWR posters come in a bewildering variety of styles and designs and I initially struggled to date them. Dates provided by online sellers are very unreliable. As I later found out, the above three are all Edwardian (first issued 1902, ca. 1908 and 1910 respectively). 
Moreover, looks can deceive. For example, I would have thought that the arty Tenby poster above was 1920s/30s, but it was introduced in 1904. I spotted it at Bath Spa in this 1907 shot. 
As a loose period indicator, I found that the name of the current General Manager sometimes – but not always - features at the bottom of posters, as seen here. It isn’t bullet proof, because some designs were used across the tenure of 2-3 GMs. Here’s a roll call of GWR GMs:
- Grierson 1863-1887
- Henry Lambert 1887-1895
- J.L. Wilkinson 1896-1903
- James C. Inglis 1903-1911
- Frank Potter 1912-1919
- Charles Adlington 1919-1921
- Felix Pole 1921-1929
- James Milne 1929-1947
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The GWR Magazine also on occasion showed recent posters, which helped dating them. The above three all featured in the May 1911 GW Magazine as “recent issues”, illustrating how widely different styles were in use at the same time.
That said, there was a general evolution of style over time. Dates for these three are 1891, 1897 and the latter must be ca. 1902 (since General Manager Wilkinson is mentioned at bottom, and the style is William Tomkin who did a series with this lettering at that time).
Moving on in time, above are examples from 1908; 1912-1919 (General Manager: Potter) and 1921-1929 (General Manager: Pole). The first two are in Alec Fraser’s “bubble” style (see below). 
And lastly: 1932; 1937 (with Arian undertones!); 1947. The latter was the last pictorial poster made by the GWR. 
The same design was sometimes used in series of posters. “Hunting Season” was issued in 1903, the others presumably around the same time. These are illustrated by William Tomkin who did a number of GWR posters in the late 1890s and 1900s. He was also commissioned by other companies, e.g. the LB&SCR. 
Some posters crop up particularly often in Edwardian photos, especially this famous example. It appears in a colour supplement of the June 1908 GWR Magazine, but could have been introduced earlier. 
The double-size poster with the large diagonal “GWR” seen here at Dawlish Warren on the right and left (two different versions) also frequently appears in period photos. I haven’t found a good example, so will try to draw up one myself.
Some posters were clearly around for several years and re-employed or adapted. The one on the left advertises the upcoming 1906 opening of the Fishguard route. I found it again on Parcels Van No. 109, photographed when new in November 1909. The sentence “To be Opened in Summer 1906” has simply been deleted.
Seasonal posters can help set the time of year for a layout – or be avoided for the same reason! These are both in William Tomkin’s style. “Bank Holiday” is dated July 1903. “Xmas” is depicted in the May 1905 edition of the GW Magazine. Service- and excursion posters
These simpler types of poster were very common and featured widely at Edwardian stations. The GWR publicity department had quite a pragmatic relationship with styles, but the “G.W.R.” header above was extensively used (Image: Getty Images, embedding permitted).
That particular style seems to have first emerged during the Inglis period. These are issued 1907, 1908, 1908. Reds, blues, greens and blacks appear to have been the common colours. 
The style seems to have been fairly longlived. E.g. ”Cork” was issued during the Adlington period (1919-1921). ”Foggy Weather” is a general disclaimer. It is marked Paddington but I have spotted it at a rural station. The poster on the right advertises the Travel Book during the Inglis period (1903-1911). 
This one from the Inglis period (1903-1911) cropped up at Chipping Norton, illustrating how posters advertising general services - including luxurious ones - were distributed around the system and not just at the obvious big stations.
A crop from a photo of the newly built Lambourn station in 1910. On the left are the common style posters yet again, advertising Southampton and the Channel Islands. Also ads for Paris and the Rhine. Branchline modellers can dream big with their posters!
Further along the platform at Lambourn in 1910: Posters advertise DN&SR services, excursions to Killaloe in Ireland and GWR sailings to Brest in Brittany. Does anyone know what the postcard-shaped items are - flyers perhaps?
A timetable in the “G.W.R.” style. Ironically I have struggled to find good examples of Edwardian station timetables. This one is 1908. The Penzance postcard appears to show numerous timetables 
Posters advertising football or rugby specials can be recognised from a distance by the illustration of a ball. Here is one at Abingdon (no date), again with the widespread ”G.W.R” header.
These football and rugby specials have a different header style from the Abingdon one. They are dated 1909, 1909, 1912 and thus coexisted with the common type discussed above. 
At some point after WW1 this new header and design became a common style, while the earlier ones faded. I haven’t seen examples of this style before 1920. This one is dated February 1929. The style can be seen in this post-1925 photo of Bath, which also features the 1920 Torquay ”palm tree” poster shown earlier.
Posters advertising particular services weren’t always simple designs. These are both from 1904. 
The Edwardian era saw the “rebirth” of the GWR with many improvements to the system. The above posters illustrated in the July 1908 GW Magazine advertise some of them. Such posters can help determine the date of a layout, or lead to headaches if like me you are modelling an extended period of time!Will stop there. Notes on poster boards and adverts to follow. If anyone wants a link to my online album of GWR posters in larger resolution please let me know. They are mainly Edwardian with a few grouping ones.