I currently have four of these and I’m sure that a few more will crop up in the future, and so it makes perfect sense to create a dedicated section for them.
First up is this generic embossed greetings postcard. There would almost certainly have been hundreds or thousands of these produced, each identical but for the fact that it was a differently named location. Bought at auction in March 2023, it is postally unused so it’s very difficult to date accurately but I can confirm that the company of Wildt & Kray was certainly producing postcards in the 1910s and ’20s (see the Christmas card below).
I don’t own this novelty postcard; I found it on the internet at the Worthpoint website but the reverse was not shown. Apparently it was drawn by the renowned postcard artist William Henry Ellam (1858-1935) and the cow in the background slides from side to side.
The remainder are all postcards sent either to or by someone in the village, sometimes even a combination of the two!
I don’t own this one either as, like the novelty card above, I found it on the internet at the Worthpoint website. You can can see that it is addressed to Tom Johnson of “Ivy House“, and is dated 1905.
I have no idea what became of the second postcard that is mentioned.
“Aunt Pop” was almost certainly her spinster Aunt Lucy Lambe Johnson who, by the time of the 1911 census just sixteen months later, lived at “Red House” in Waddington which fits perfectly with the postmark.
You can read more about the Johnson’s of “Ivy House” here.
Another Wildt & Kray production, this Christmas card was sent from Dunholme, Lincolnshire.
You can read Rachel Smart‘s story HERE.
This next postcard is remarkable in that it was sent on Christmas Eve 1913 and, because it was posted in and to a destination within the village, it would almost certainly have arrived on the same day.
I have also researched Amelia Baguley, the recipient of this card, and you can read her story here.
Bassingham Back Then... 