Sunday 4 April 2010

Butcher Row


I picked up this card out of one of my older collections, thinking it must be relatively recent and had been misplaced. In fact it was posted from Coventry on 5 April 1915, 95 years ago.  It's not only in amazingly good condition but it looks very different from many of the cards from that era.

The artist, Florence Weston, published a book of 24 drawings of Coventry in 1916 and a series of ten postcards, but she was an accomplished artist best known for her watercolours of old Coventry.  Butcher Row, in fact it was Great Butcher Row, was demolished in 1936.


The message reads:
Am having a grand time.  Hope you are A1.  Arriving (here) Ashford about 8 Sunday evening.  Just returned from the city.  Very cold here.  Fo?? after dinner.  Opera House tonight.
Update for Genes Reunited people:  the card was sent to Miss Back, c/o Mrs Lee, in Ashford, Kent.

Two things interest me.  First of all the mistake the writer made wasn't crossed out but enclosed in brackets.  One primary school teacher of mine insisted on the same method of correcting mistakes.  I thought it was an idiosyncrasy of that particular teacher but maybe it was the method of choice at one time.  The second interest lies in wondering what could possibly be happening after dinner, and presumably before the Opera House.  Answers on a postcard.....

5 comments:

  1. I really enjoy all your wonderful old postcards! Interesting about the inserted parenthetical word as opposed to a cross-out. I hadn't seen that before. That's a great old drawing of Coventry in 1915.

    Hope you've had a very nice Easter Day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. English is not my mother touge, so I always can read written things like this~~

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful drawing of old Coventry. The handwriting is wonderful - not many people have good handwriting these days.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such a cryptic message. "after dinner. Opera House." Where could they possibly be going? A nightcap perhaps or a late night meeting. Mmmm

    ReplyDelete
  5. I belive this postcard from Alice is my husbands Great Grandmother, as on her marriage certificate on the 01 May 1915 she was living at 10 Butcher Row where husband Nicholas Lacey.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...