This month Barry Cuff has chosen two postcards from Sixpenny Handley, both sent in 1913, the year before the First World War began.
Sent to Elsie Carter in Salisbury – Elsie is on the 1911 census, so we know she was 17 and an apprentice ladies outfitter when she received this card, living at home with her parents, two brothers and a sister. ‘Dad’ was Joseph Carter, 69, a tailor. ‘Uncle Henry’ is perhaps George Henry Phillips, who lived in Sixpenny Handley with his eight children, probably at The Hollow as pictured. The only adult Amy in Handley in the 1911 census was a 23 year old Amy Enna Alford, a domestic servant at ‘The Cottage, The Coppier, Handley’ – an address which no longer exists.
‘Dear Elsie, please tell Dad that the horse called Reuben, which was ill when he was here, died last Sat. love from all Amy. … It is Uncle Harry in the picture’
This postcard was sent by an apparently keen photographer in August 1913 to Mr Walter Butcher of Shelbourne Road in Bournemouth – we know from the census that he was 21, unmarried and a milk carrier.
Handley, Salisbury, Thursday. ‘Dear Walter, this is a view of Handley all out at the top of Handley Street. I hope you will like it. Ever so many thanks for the nice cards I received from you and thank you so much for the Photo Bits this morning. I have just had a long letter from Mrs Whitestone this afternoon. I hope you are well, and your dear mother and all the rest. with love from [unreadable]
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