Sammy and Alice Dransfield of Mossley and their twisty turning story

Now, I have the postcard, a possible address for where it was sent and a family who may have received it but matching all three has not quite worked.

The card in question is one of those “silks” which were popular either side of the Great War.

Many were a product of a cottage industry based in northern France, and I guess that was why so many were sent home from the Western Front.

Often the cards feature the names and badges of British Regiments while others have a variety sentimental message.

And because they were made of silk and delicate, they tended to be sent in an envelope, which probably explains why this postcard bears no stamp.

That said “Sammy” who sent it provided the destination address, and Wyre Street still exists, although sadly the row including number 17 was demolished long ago.

But they were there in 1894 close to a school and the disused graveyard of St George’s Church.

I can’t yet match the house with a family from the census return but I am fairly confident that Mr and Mrs Dransfield who were living on Oldham in 1911, are our people.

His middle name was Samuel and in the middle of the Great War he would still only have been in his mid-40s and so within military age.

But and it is a big but, I can’t find anyone in the family whose first name might have begun with an S.  Mrs. Dransfield was an Alice, their two daughters were called Elizabeth and Alice and their son was a Joseph.

To which some will murmur “pretty much a non-story …. having taken us halfway up the hill you abandon us with no end to the tale".

And yep that is how it goes sometimes.

Location; Mossley

Picture; a silk postcard, date unknown, from the collection of David Harrop