The Kings Arms – 1915

High Street, Market Lavington as sent on a postcard to Canada in 1915

Here we see the High Street at Market Lavington on a postcard that was posted in 1915. The prominent building and sign, on the right, is the Kings Arms. On the right, on the corner of The Market Place, there is the Post Office which is where the chemist is now.

The Post Office stood where the chemist’s shop is now

This card was posted to Canada.

The card was sent to Ontario, Canada

We assume Bert, who sent it, was a Canadian soldier.

The brief message is transcribed below

March 9th
Dear Sam
Received your letter this evening. Many thanks for epistaxis. We are still in England billeted near this village but expect to leave shortly.
Bert

Of course, we can’t make out the epistaxis or nose bleed comment! But it seems Canadians were still around in March 1915.

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St Mary’s Church to Imber

It’s easy to forget now that once upon a time and still within living memory, real people lived in Imber and carried on real and very normal lives. One of our postcards of St Mary’s Church was sent to a recipient in Imber so we see not only a part of our own village but also get a reminder of our lost neighbour.

Lavington Church interior before the organ was moved

 

This is the village church here in Market Lavington in a colour tinted card. We know it is an early postcard because we can see the organ in its old place at the right of the church rather than behind the choir stalls where it is now. But actually, if you didn’t spot that this could have been a taken recently image for little has changed. The font cover, in the foreground is still the same. The pews haven’t altered. As is often the case the village church is unchanging or very slow to change.

Now let’s turn the card over.

Card reverse – sent to Mrs Meaden in Imber

We can see this was a Walton’s series card and it was posted in 1908 and it was sent to Mrs Meaden of 32 Imber. The message is what we’d send by text or some other electronic form these days. Annie is telling her aunt she’ll be home on Saturday evening.

We think Mrs Meaden was Anna the widow of Jack and that Annie, her niece was Annie Collins. But Meaden was about the commonest surname in Imber so we could be wrong there. But Anna Baker Meaden (née Sainsbury) was related to the Baker family who were white smiths in Market Lavington. Ida Baker of Market Lavington lived with her at the time of the 1911 census. She had become an Imber school teacher.

High Street East

This photo was one which Don allowed us to copy recently. It shows the far end of High Street in Market Lavington, away from the village centre and looking towards Easterton.

The east end of Market Lavington High Street

We are looking down, past the Congregational Church and can note the presence of a thatched roof amongst the houses on the right.

A High Street house with a thatched roof

The house immediately on the left, with the man outside and roof windows is now number 49.

Number 49 High Street with a man posing for the camera

There is the vaguest chance that somebody might recognise this chap as one of their ancestors.

We believe this photo dates from around 1910 but basically it is a timeless scene. Even the fact that this is a posted card doesn’t help for as often happens, somebody in the past steamed off the stamp taking the postmark with it.

The back of the card

All of the people mentioned in this message are members of the Coleman family and all had lived, or still did live in Market Lavington.

A tremendous place

Our tremendous place is Market Lavington Manor House. It was described as such in a postcard sent in 1917. This is another item given to the museum in the run up to Christmas and here is the picture.

Market Lavington Manor on a card posted in 1917

The photo probably predates 1917 and may well be Edwardian in origin. The style of caption certainly makes it look like an E Burgess card.

This card was posted in 1917 – just about readable on the postmark. It looks as though it was posted in Littleton Panell.

Postmark – enough to guess at and addressee

Of course, we have no idea who Mrs H Richardson was.

The simple message to her says:

The message sent to Mrs H Richardson of Longsight in Manchester

Cliff and his crowd are on the 3^rd floor of the Manor on the reverse side. It is a tremendous place and has not been occupied for a good number of years. Yours Bert.

Of course, we do not know who Cliff and his crowd were, but probably they were soldiers in training for World War One duties.

Bert was right about the building not having been occupied in any permanent way. Charles Awdry, the owner, died in 1912 and the building was largely unoccupied from then on. We have seen evidence of the building in use in 1914 as a hospital for Canadian soldiers and it seems likely that ‘a tremendous place’ would have found other military uses.

But possibly the grounds would not have looked as well tended as they do in the postcard picture.

The Grove in 1937

We have a postcard today which shows the Grove in 1937.

A rural scene in Market Lavington in 1937

As the card says, it is a rural scene and clearly a spring time one with lambs in the field. It is very hard to get a precise fix on just where this is, but it does look like Grove Farm with the road up Lavington Hill rising behind it.

Grove Farm and Lavington Hill

An added interest on this card is the message on the back.

This card was sent to Belgium

It was sent from Palm House to Lessines, Hainault in Belgium by Gilberte.

Can anybody tell us who lived at Palm House then – and who was Gilberte who definitely seemed keen on Mme J Keymeulon?

Tiny seeds of love from Market Lavington

Postcard producers had backed a winner in earlier times. In days of yore the post card was used where, later, people might have used the telephone and these days would use some form of electronic communication. Of course, postcards were not as instant as modern day methods but you could be pretty certain that a postcard sent one day would arrive at its destination the next day.

Messages on postcards were often something like, ‘Will arrive on the 10.30 train tomorrow morning’. It’s much the same as text messages today.

But postcards had an advantage. They were physical items so the message lasted and after the very early days you could select a picture on the front to suit the recipient. Now who, we wonder, might have received this one.

Copy of postcard at Market Lavington Museum

Could, maybe, a new mum have sent it to a husband serving in the First World War? If so, he might have been horrified at seeing what looks like quads!

No doubt someone was pleased to receive this and, clearly, the card was kept. Post card collecting was, of course, a very popular thing to do.

A Postcard from the recreation ground

This card is another recent acquisition at Market Lavington Museum.

The Church from the Recreation Ground – possibly Edwardian

Market Lavington’s recreation ground used to be the field behind what is now Shires Close. It was clearly used heavily for football – the goal mouth area is very worn. The flock of lawnmowers (sheep, of course) are making sure that the field’s grass is kept under control.

Colour in this picture is, of course, artist added and may not always be a close representation of reality but certainly where plants survive in the old ‘rec’ it looks to be a floral area of grassland.

Behind the recreation ground we can see, at the left, Meadow Cottage under what appears to be rather mossy thatch. The other house below the church is Spring Villa.

Further round and under the spreading cedar tree we can pick out the tiled roof of the village school which is now, of course, The Old School

This is a high summer image. The pollarded trees which form the perimeter of the church land are in full leaf and a young man enjoys a siesta amongst the flowers on the rec.

A Walton’s Series card

This card was never posted but we note it is in Walton’s series. Mr Walton owned the department store in Market Lavington.

Printed in Belgium

It is also interesting to note that the card was printed in Belgium. It is a cheap card. The board is very thin – hardly more than paper. Mr Walton would have been selling in competition with Mr Burgess and no doubt sought to be as cheap as possible.

The Co-op in times past

Today we have a postcard which shows a part of the High Street in times past. The card was posted in 1910.

Market Lavington High Street on a card posted in 1910

If we start on the left we can see what was then and still is the butcher’s shop. The building just beyond that, with the arched underpass has been demolished and stood at the entrance to what we now call Woodland Yard. Further down the street we can see the dark looking sign for the Kings Arms pub – now converted into housing and beyond it, with the windows in the roof there is Red House. From then on we look into Church Street leading down to the building with the gable end facing the road which was another butcher’s shop back then.

The curvature of the road hides much of the right side of the street. We can see the light coloured building which is the present Co-op and beyond that was Alf Burgess’s shop which had his little photographic studio behind it.

Let’s look at some detail.

The weighbridge – just outside what is now Woodland Yard

This is the weighbridge which stood outside that arch near the butcher’s shop. It appears to have writing cast into the weighing platform but I’m afraid we can’t make that out. Maybe a weighbridge expert can tell us more.

Below we show a part of what is now the Co-op. It appears to say, above the window, something like A R Hole and Sons. We have no record of this name or anything we can read it as. Once again, we seek enlightenment.

For completeness, let’s look at the other side of the card which as the message written upside down just to make it a bit more awkward for the postman to read.

We can see that Fred sent a brief message to his Ma – Mrs Claridge – on August 17^th 1910. The card was posted in Market Lavington.

Six of the best!

6 Peeps at Market Lavington

Alf Burgess was nothing if not entrepreneurial. He was quick to see opportunities for additional trade and the arrival of Canadian soldiers in the area was clearly a chance to sell additional post cards for all would have had loved ones back home and a need to send snappy messages back to them. We know that Alf produced cards especially for the Canadians. This one may have been made with a more general audience in mind as well. It shows six views of the village.

Six views of Market Lavington. A 1914 postcard by Alf Burgess.

We wonder if this was quite an early effort for Mr Burgess which he entitled ‘6 Peeps at Market Lavington. This card was posted in 1914 but his other multiview cards, definitely produced for WWI,  are much more complex and have a more artistic layout.

What we see here is a view from the hill, High Street, The Workmans’ Hall, The church – exterior and interior and Church Street. No doubt all would have been available as individual cards as well.

A Hopkins Post Card

Hopkins who was general builders and builders’ merchants in Market Lavington 100 years ago had their own postcards for quick and simple information transfer.

Here is one posted on 18^th August 1914 – 100 years ago.

Hopkins postcard sent on 18th August 1914

As we can see, plumbing and drainage seem to have been specialities, if we judge by the images on the address side of the card.

The reverse, of course, carries the message.

The message is a simple acknowledgement of an order

We now have to remember what conditions were like 100 years ago. The telephone was an established item, but most people and companies didn’t have them. Of course, there was no email or text messaging. The postcard was the equivalent of its day.

It was a fortnight since Britain had declared war on Germany when this card was sent and no doubt many a young man was away from home, receiving training or was even overseas. But rural life still went on – as it had to, of course.

How lucky we are to have reminders of this time in Market Lavington Museum.