Luckily for Stephen Sellick, the items he collects are small and flat. It’s lucky because he has more than 4,000 of them.

The 61-year-old has a passion for postcards, “the emails of their day“, and the easiest way to pass messages in a time before telephones.

In his latest book, the collector and history buff has taken a selection of postcards that show Enfield street views then returned to the scene of the shot with his camera to photograph how things have changed.

“I went and tried to find the exact spot where the photographer was standing,“ explains Stephen, whose family has been living in the area since at least the 19th Century.

“Some photos took a bit of detective work because so few original features remain – sometimes all you had to go on was a road name that remained.“

These then and now shots are presented side by side in Enfield Through Time, a 96-page picture book with captions detailing the local landmarks.

Capturing the vintage vistas as they look today sometimes proved quite a challenge.

“Of course back then the photographer was often standing in the middle of the road which would get you killed these days,“ explains retired Stephen, who also collects regimental badges, matchbox labels, pub names and railway tickets.

“In other cases trees have grown and block the view. The other problem was getting the right time of day. You had to be there in the morning or afternoon to get the right light.“

Stephen’s present day pictures took around two years to collate. On many occasions he had to wait for the right weather conditions, lulls in traffic and crowds to clear, to get the snap.

His extensive, ever growing collection of postcards is kept in albums at his home in Enfield. He has become an authority on this once common form of communication.

“The postal deliveries were such that you could send a postcard and get a reply on the same day if you lived fairly close. The telephone didn’t really get going until after World War One, so there was a period where thousands were sent. Postcards were the emails of the day.

“Most have fairly banal, down to earth messages, few say much beyond ’I’m staying here’.

“But there are a few with more to say. They must have had the tiniest of pen nibs then because the amount of words some people squeeze on is amazing.

“Others try to out fox the postman by writing the messages in code. Some use shorthand. There are a few where a secret message is written under the stamp, which the receiver would have to float off to reveal it.“

Enfield Through Time, £14.99, is available now from local book stores, www.amazon.co.uk and www.amberleybooks.com