From Deepest Dorset to York

 

I bought this postcard because I was particularly keen to have a view of a busy city street, complete with shops, people and trams. This view of Boar Lane in Leeds does all that and more. You can make out, on the left, part of Lockhart's 'grand restaurant' and just a small piece, on the right, of the London Dentistry building.

The card was sent from Leeds to York by Lillie Day. Lillie was born in Holwell, Dorset in 1891. Her mother, Florence Miles, was born in Surrey and she married Samuel Day in Holwell. The couple would later live on a farm near Margaret Marsh, Dorset.

Florence's father, Henry Miles, was born in Gillingham, Dorset (not Kent!) and in 1881 he was a railway inspector in Battersea. Ten years later and he was the publican of the Fox Inn, Holwell. Another ten years later, in 1901, he and his wife, daughter and two granddaughters lived in Yorkshire where he was a grocer.

In 1911 he had retired and the family – all three generations – lived at the address on the card. Lillie and her sister worked as packers for Rowntrees. Samuel Day remained in the Dorset/Somerset area.

What made this card especially interesting to me was that in Dorset, the family lived just a few miles from where I live. 

Olive and the Polisher

Olive Carvell was born in Bermondsey in 1901. Her father was a French polisher and maker of pianofortes, and was born in Pimlico. His wife, Mary Martin, was born in Bermondsey and the couple had three children. Olive married in 1926 – so despite the stamp being removed, we know the postcard predates that event. I had hoped the man she married might match the initials on the card – unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.

 

Siblings in Suffolk

 

Ada Hammond lived at the address on the card (Shaftesbury) with her brother and sister. Robert was a carpenter and their father, Robert, was a builder. Also at the address was another sister, Helen. Their youngest sister, Annie, was a servant in 1911 and lived in Ipswich. Another sister, Charlotte, married a tailor’s cutter and lived in Wallingford.