The Village

The first card has a postmark of 1909 and was sent to Surrey. It shows the Red Cow, the Pump and interestingly, a weatherboard house showing a distinctive pattern of stripes. According to a printed description from 1893 the majority of village buildings were painted in this way. According to the author the colours were ‘ a light French grey, relieved by narrow bands of lemon colour’. This is a early and rare view of this.

The third card is postmarked August 1920 and was sent to Walthamstow.

The fourth card is postmarked August 1923 and was sent to Deal in Kent. The message read that the writer had just been to Canvey for an hour or so by boat.

So, what’s the secret? If you look carefully at postcards two, three and four you will see  a small building with a porch set back from the road. It is between the gabled building and the house that was originally striped. It is not there in the other or in most other views. We didn’t know of its existence until late last year when speaking with Roger Thipthorp whose collection this is from. He also told us an interesting story. He used to live opposite this little house. The local council declared it unsafe due to subsidence. When it was demolished Mr. Thipthorp bought the roof tiles and the floor timbers. He was a builder and re-used the tiles and the timber in a house he built for himself in Station Approach. So the present is still linked to the past and vice versa.