When two of Britain’s best-loved painters visited Folkestone they captured a very different town to the one we see today and the one in postcards from just half a century later.

The vistas JMW Turner and John Constable looked upon and painted show an almost unrecognisable Folkestone in the 1830s and 1840s.

They are now the subjects of a series of postcards raising money for the Friends of St Mary and St Eanswythe.

The Pent Valley was still green hills and the sweeping boulevards of west Folkestone would not be built for another 50 years or so.

It was a small fishing town with no seafront hotels along The Leas and certainly no major harbour development to speak of, save a few fishing huts and the outer pier taking shape.

The railway to the harbour was not built until 1847, with the station on the harbour arm opening on January 1, 1849.

But one thing has remained constant – the Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe.

Dating from 1215, the church was the dominating feature of Folkestone’s skyline for hundreds of years before the town’s late Victorian and Edwardian boom.

Constable’s piece titled Folkestone Harbour in the V&A’s collection is dated from October 16, 1833, when he was 57 and just four years before his death.

It is thought to have been painted when he was visiting Folkestone for a fortnight because his son John, who went to school in Folkestone, had hurt himself sleep-walking.

Nina Sandhaus from the V&A said: “Throughout his career Constable was convinced of the importance of painting directly from nature. After 1829 he abandoned using oils for outdoor sketching, resorting instead to the more spontaneous medium of watercolour.

“The V&A collection of Constable’s work includes a series of drawings from a sketchbook used by the artist during visits to Folkestone in 1833 and Sussex in 1834.”

Turner, too, visited Folkestone in his twilight years, coming in 1845 aged 70 and six years before he died.

His work is taken from a sketchbook titled Ideas of Folkestone, featuring 24 sketches including the harbour, pier, the Pent stream and the Foord viaduct which was completed the year before Turner recorded his observations during his visit.

Amy Concannon, assistant curator of British art at The Tate where Turner’s collection is kept, said: “The watercolour comes from a time when Turner’s pace was beginning to slow, but only a little.

“He made his last trips to the Continent in 1845, and, around this time, some of his last journeys to the south coast of England, observing sunrises, sunsets, and the changing conditions at sea from places he had grown very fond of over his lifetime, like Folkestone and Margate.

“In their loose handling and evidently swift, quick manner you can see the pleasure he took in making so many meditative studies like this one.”

The works by Constable and Turner are now the subject of a special collection of postcards fundraising for The Friends of St Mary and St Eanswythe, the group which helps to look after the Saxon church.

It has had help from The Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum which have given the church permission to use the paintings.

Pam Keeling from the Friends group said they were “absolutely delighted to be granted special permission” by both museums for 500 limited editions of each painting.

• The postcards are available in the church in Church Street for £1 each with all the proceeds going to Friends of St Mary and St Eanswythe