Making a new story ..... when the old one didn't work

There is always a story ….. even when the one you planned turns out to be a dead end.

And so it is with this picture postcard, which appeared to be about Teynham in Dorset.

It often pops up in popular history as the “lost village where time stopped in 1943” because “it was evacuated in December of that year ….. and has been deserted ever since. The area was needed for military training but after the war ended, the villagers were not allowed to return. The Village remains part of the Armoured Fighting Vehicles Gunnery School, an important training establishment of the British Army.*

It would have made a compelling story, only our card was destined for another village called Tyneham in Kent not Dorset.

Which meant that the story became the story of the Stickles family and how you go about dating a picture postcard.

The Stickles were living on Station Road Tyneham in 1911 and were still there in 1939.

Just when Mrs Stickles received her post card is as yet unclear, the post mark is illegible but the half penny green stamp of George V stamp dates from 1912 and 1924. 

That said the picture postcard is older.  It was produced by the Valentine company and their catalogue shows it was registered in 1895.

In time I will go looking for the history of the family, tracking them back and forwards across Kent.

Mr. Stickles worked as a labourer in a brick works and Mr. Stickles and his wife Emma had been married for 31 years, had had ten children, of which nine had survived and in 1911 three were stll living at home.

At this point I could comment on the contents of the card but I shall leave that to you to read.

Location; Kent

Picture; postcard circa 1912-1924 from the collection of David Harrop

*Visit Dorset, https://www.visit-dorset.com/listing/tyneham-village/13633301/