postcards to a North London family
This card, postmarked 1st August 1917 was sent to Winnie Barber by her aunt Kitty. It’s a lovely coloured image of the Eastern Chapel in Peterborough Cathedral.
The message is brief:
107 Mayors Walk
Peterborough
31/7/17
Dear Winnie
We are going to the service here on Sunday. With love,
Auntie Kitty
This card was posted to George Barber from K (Kitty) in Peterborough on 20th August 1916.
The message on this card is very much in the style of a modern communication and I imagine Kitty expected a prompt reply! Her message reads:
107 Mayor’s Walk
Peterboro’
20.8.16
Dear G
What is the name of the grower you asked about. K
This card was sent from Lizzie in Teignmouth on 13th August 1916. It was sent to Winnie Barber at 1 Moffat Road.
The message reads
13 Bitton street
Teignmouth
Devon
Dear Winnie
you can see from the above address that we have arrived at the place which will be our home for the next 3 weeks. It is pouring with rain this morning so I thought I would write to you. We shall be going out tomorrow if fine and I shall be on the look out for china clay. We can see the rock marked X on the other side of the card – from the bedroom window so you can see we are near the sea. I have filled up the card now so I must say goodbye.
Love from Lizzie
This card, a humorous one produced by the Cynicus Publishing Company shows an image of “Bonnie Dundee” – a mass of smoky chimneys.
It was sent to Mrs Barber from Kitty on 5th January 1916 from 13 Queen Street, Tayport. Kitty has included best wishes for 1916 on the front of the card.
The message reads
Dear A
I shall be home about 6.00 or 7.00 on Friday evening. Elizabeth is coming with me. Will you come round to tea and get something in to eat. Love,
Kitty. 
This postcard appears to be the only one from 1915 in the collection. It shows a view of Ely taken from the cathedral, looking west.
The card was sent from K (Kitty?) to A (Annie Barber) on 24th March 1915. the message reads:
Dear A,
My friends are coming to tea today. When you come will you bring three pennyworth of milk scones. Winnie can come if she likes. K.
This postcard is the first one in the collection to have been sent specifically to Winnie Barber. Winnie, the daughter of George and Annie Barber, was born in 1902. Later in life she lived in Woodland Way, Winchmore Hill, which is where the box of postcards was found in the 1960s.
In 1914, aged 12, whilst presumably on holiday at The Laurels at Leigh on Sea, Winnie received this postcard from her Aunt Annie who had been on holiday at Clacton but had now returned home. The card is postmarked “Wood Green”.
The message reads:
Dear Winnie
Very please to have a pc from you please you are having such a good time and such fine weather.
I have had a nice time at Clacton but please to get home. I hope your mother’s enjoying herself.
With love from all
Aunt Annie good bye
The next card was sent by “Dad” to George Barber. He was staying at St Andrews Road, Clacton in Essex and chose this interesting image of a crowded beach at West Cliff, Clacton on Sea. The line of bathing machines along the shore harks back to an earlier time; by 1914 most of the bathing machines were static and used as changing rooms rather than being wheeled into the sea, so the photograph used on this card was probably taken several years earlier.
Dad’s message reads;
Dear George and Annie
we arrived quite safe and kept very good time country looks very nice corn seems to be pretty well
all cut & it is very nice at Clacton lots of people here weather beautiful & windy
Dad
There are four postcards in the collection which were posted in 1914. It’s quite hard to read the full postmarks so I may not have them in the correct chronological order.
This Frith’s series card, posted in Camelford, Cornwall on 9th June 1914, shows the Tintagel Hotel standing above the valley.
The card was sent by Nellie,who was staying at Sunnyside in Camelford, to Mrs (Annie) Barber. The message reads:
“We have been in Cornwall since Friday. Drove to Tintagel yesterday and had a lovely day.
The scenery is grand. Nellie.”
There are no cards posted in 1913 in the collection. When I checked the records on Ancestry I found that Annie Barber’s mother, Frances Catherine Crerar (nee Newland) died in January 1913 and Annie’s sister, Mary, died in December that year. Perhaps very few postcards were received during a sad year for the family.
The next postcard was sent from “DM” to George Barber at his work address in London. Presumably DM was a work colleague: there is no message just “compliments”. Unusually, the stamp has been removed – someone must have been interested in collecting a stamp from Belgium.
The card shows a busy scene at the Place Rogier and the Gare du Nord
This card, sent by Nell to George Barber in August 1912 shows the ruins of Whitby Abbey and the Old Cross. I wonder whether “Nell” is George’s sister, Ellen Emily, who would have been about 25 in 1912. The 1911 census shows that she was living with her parents and brothers at 18 Moffat Road, Palmers Green – very close to George, Annie and Winnie.
The message reads:
“Dear George, Have had such a good time.
Am really sorry that my time is almost over.
Yours affectionately, Nell”
Connections in time: The Barber postcards 