Collecting postcards has been a popular hobby ever since the first picture postcards were produced in the late 19th century. I started collecting them at the age of about ten, spending my pocket money on random old postcards which caught my eye in the local antique/junk shop. I didn’t have any specific fields of interest, if it was old and had an image which I liked and could be purchased for a few pennies, then I bought it.
The most prized postcards in my collection when I was ten were a set of three colourised views of Egypt from the 1930s which I still have sitting in a drawer somewhere. I found the scenes intriguing, but it was the handwritten notes on the back of the card which really fascinated me. It was like having a snapshot of a moment in someones life from an era that, as a child in the 1970s, seemed almost like ancient history. It appears that my interest in other people’s holidays from the past was present from an early age!
Postcard of Thorpe St. Andrew posted in 1942
Naturally, the majority of the postcards I collect these days are Norfolk Broads related, although most are now gathered by trawling that well known auction website! It’s astonishing just how many different images of Broadland have been produced in postcard form over the years. Many collectors prefer to have postally unused cards, but I find those that have been written on and posted far more interesting. There will be the usual “Having a lovely time, weather is good, wish you were here” type of message, but every once in a while I come across an example which captures my imagination in the same way that those postcards from Egypt did as a ten year old. On the left is one such card which I spotted for sale recently. It shows the green, the war memorial and post office stores at Thorpe St. Andrew. This was no holiday postcard, however, as it was posted during the Second World War – the 10th of July 1942 to be precise. It was sent to a Mrs M.B. Simpson of Wilmslow, near Manchester and reads: “It was nice to hear your voice on the phone last night. I pass this spot every day & call at the shop for my paper & cigs. This is a suburb of Norwich. Norwich is still a lovely city. I wish it was safe for you to be here. Love Pat.“
A message to a loved one …. a wife or mother perhaps? The first part is quite touching, but it’s the mention of Norwich still being a lovely city, and the wish that it was safe for them to be there, which can be put into context when you realise that this postcard was sent just a few months after the infamous Baedeker air raids on the city. Now referred to as the “Norwich Blitz”, the overnight bombing raids of the 27th and 29th of April 1942 destroyed large areas of the city, leaving 230 people dead and over 800 injured. Many historic buildings were left in ruin. Factories, shops and houses were reduced to smouldering piles of rubble. The city water main was hit, leaving firefighters struggling to deal with the resulting fires and the inhabitants without a fresh water supply. Many hundreds of people were made homeless.
The Baedeker raids targeted five cities in England and were executed in retaliation for the heavy bombing of the historic German city of Lubeck by the British in March of that year. The raids were so named because it is believed that the cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York and Canterbury, were chosen for their historical importance from the German “Baedeker” travel guide to Great Britain. Norwich had suffered a number of air raids during the earlier years of the war, but nothing approaching the scale of devastation wreaked upon the city over those two nights in April 1942. I’ve already mentioned Nick Stone’s incredible collection of “Blitz Ghosts” photographs which combine images of the aftermath of those raids with modern photographs taken from the same location, but also of interest is the Norwich Air Raids page of the George Plunkett website which details all of the raids on the city during WW2. This is a fascinating website, gathering together images of the city taken by the late George Plunkett between 1931 and 2006, often accompanied by his notes which give more details of the history of the various buildings, streets and general scenes he photographed. The collection documents some of the dramatic changes which Norwich has undergone over the years, from the slum clearance of the 1920s and 1930s, through to the major redevelopment and road widening of the city in the 1960s and 1970s.
As is always the case with things like these, the Thorpe postcard has left me wanting to know more about the recipient and the sender. Was Pat a he or a she, for example? Sadly, I am never likely to know who they were or what became of them … just this poignant little glimpse into their lives during WW2.
