Old pictures dating back to 1950s show Chichester, Bognor Regis and surrounding area in postcards collection

Across two albums, the postcard collection features composite pictures of towns and villages in Sussex and across the UK. Every county in England is represented, bar two – Leicestershire and Rutland, and there are also postcards from Scotland and Wales.

A black cat features on many of the postcards, being a symbol of good luck, including for Felpham and Elmer Sands. Manor Way, Sea Way from the putting green, the beach and the sands also feature for Felpham, while Elmer Sands has Blake's Cottage, the beach, the bungalows and the village.

The Bognor Regis postcard is unusual as it places the colour pictures in triangular shapes rather than squares. The Esplanade, beach and boating all feature.

The Chichester postcard shows the lock at Birdham, the quay at Old Bosham, Chichester Cathedral and the Cross from West Street.

The monochrome Selsey postcard has the lifeboat slipway, Mill Camp, High Street, Crablands Park, the sands and Marine Hotel, while the Middleton postcard is very colourful and features the village sign as a centrepoint.

The colour Arundel postcard features Arundel Castle, swans on Swanbourne Lake, the River Arun, High Street and St Philip Neri – now known as Arundel Cathedral.

Earnley Mill features on the Bracklesham Bay postcard, along with the foreshore, Main Road and two pictures of the sands. There is also a separate postcard of Sussex Windmills, showing Clayton Mills near Hassocks, Rottingdean, Patcham and High Salvington.

The Pulborough postcard shows Old Place, St Mary's Church, 'the bridge' and Stopham Bridge, which also features in a postcard of Beautiful West Sussex alongside Henfield, Worthing, Lancing College, Horsham, Shoreham, Cowfold, Hurstpierpoint and Wisborough Green.

The collection began with postcards of Rye and Battle, purchased in 1953 when he was living in Bexhill. The early ones were monochrome or with a brown tint and the first coloured postcard in the collection was of Bexhill and even that showed only blue.

On instructions from his wife, he has been told to dispose of 80 years of 'nerdy interests and collections', including the two albums containing more than 450 composite postcards of different towns and villages, including more than 100 of Sussex and Kent.

They were collected between 1953 and 1964, when his very patient father would pull up his two-door Hillman Husky when passing through any unrepresented village for him to spend his 3d at the local stationers.

He is happy to give the albums to anyone prepared to collect them from Slindon in exchange for an agreed donation to St Wilfrid's Hospice in Bosham. The postcard albums would need to be collected from Slindon and, preferably, kept together. To express an interest, telephone 01243 814428.