The idea of Aberdovey as a shopping centre is a somewhat staggering notion, given the modern sense of the term, which usually involves ugly custom-built malls and airfield-sized car parks, but it must have been a very busy high street, an important source of all sorts of goods in a period when people shopped close to home.  Although today most of the frontages along the promenade are businesses that rely on supplying the tourist industry, shops like the butcher and pharmacy both have dates over their doors today (1861 and1863 respectively, see photographs below) demonstrating that village stores were very important as Aberdovey continued to grow.  In this picture there is a dairy too, which today is an excellent ice cream shop.  The cars have real charm but the bicycles lined up against the wharf fence tell the real story about how most people got around.  Over the fence is one of the rail trucks that ran on tracks along the wharf and jetty for loading and unloading ships.

This turns out to be a photograph of a postcard, rather than the original postcard itself, so the reverse side is completely blank. A shame, as a huge part of the story is missing.