A COLLECTION of postcards that started off in a shoebox has now spread to half-a-dozen large chests of drawers.

The 37,327 postcards belong to Roger Peck, who bought his first postcard of Derbyshire for 1p some time in the 1960s and has been collecting ever since.

Travelling all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland with his wife, Daphne, Mr Peck has managed to get at least one postcard for every single village, town and city in Britain that he knows has published one.

Mr Peck, 71, of Fox Street, Ardleigh, said: "We've been all around the country, staying in B&Bs and travelling by car.

"We've driven around all the roads in the British Isles, from Land's End to John O'Groats.

Mr Peck, 71, started collecting almost 50 years ago and his collection documents a lifetime of family holidays, many of which were taken with daughter Sandra, 43, and son, Ian, 46.

He said: "As soon as we got a car and started to go on holiday, when we returned and had been home for a while we never remembered exactly where we'd been and what we'd done so we thought we would make sure we had postcards for each town and village so we would remember."

QUANTITY Kept in plastic sleeves specially-designed for his collection, the cards are kept in cabinets made by Mr Peck himself.

Because of the sheer quantity of cards, he has a special ruler which can measure a bundle of 100 at a time.

The postcards date from as long ago as the 1900s and include many from this area, including cards depicting trams on North Hill, Colchester.

All in alphabetical order, from Avon to Yorkshire, the postcards document decades of dedicated travelling, much of which, Mr Peck admitted, is done solely for the purpose of adding more postcards to his impressive collection.

He said: "It's the first thing I do when I get somewhere.

"I go into a newsagents or shop and pick up my new cards."

Mrs Peck, 71, said: "Buying the postcards takes up a lot of the holiday and I usually have to wait outside the shop while he goes in and gets them!"