WWI Era Postcard Shows Disaster Near Hatfield

Met up with several friends at the Shrewsbury charity gig, but one in particular - Hayley Easthope - has given me lots of postcards in the past and presented me with a bunch of World War One era postcards as we got together. I'll show them over several articles as there are a few different subjects - a collection of views of Amiens, a comic postcard booklet collection about the Mannequin Pis in Brussels and a handful with messages from the War and just after.

I'll start with this one though. The original is very faded and I expect was taken by a local photographer and hastily produced due to the topicality of the subject matter. Unfortunately the stamp has been removed which robs the card of its dated postmark, but it was removed without enough time or water as the stamp has ripped and the fragment remaining is a green halfpenny stamp of King George V, whose reign began in 1910.

The postcard was written in pencil which has also faded badly, but by scanning it and playing about with tone, contrast and brightness I think I've managed to decipher the tiny writing - the sender managed to fit quite a sizeable message on his card. Plenty of value for a ha'penny which in today's money is just £0.0020833 - only just over a fifth of today's penny.

I suspect the writer was training in the army as "leave" is mentioned and quite possibly was on placement working on a farm from a comment about working hours. They signed with a bit of a squiggle which I'm afraid I can't make out.

The card reads:

This is one of the victims of our storm. Two old people were sitting at the table when this fell down but marvellously escaped. Am at this place now, a little village called Essendon about 4 miles from Hatfield. This is the very first chance I've had to write since last, they work in country from morn till night.

Very many thanks for parcel duly rec'd awfully sorry couldn't come last weekend they stopped leave on Sat morning owing to the telegraph breakdown. I don't know yet if I shall be able to come this weekend, will write letter as soon as possible. Kind regards...

* * * * * * * *

By the time the photographer reached the scene to take his photograph the fallen tree has been chopped and sawn into several parts, but it is possible to get a good idea of the size of it and the damage it did to the house that it fell on. The old couple at their table had a lucky escape indeed!

Post Script: Hayley has messaged me to say - The sender was Edgar Pedley my dad's uncle. He served in the signals. (which explains why leave was cancelled due to the broken telegraph! - John) I have a photo of him in uniform.

Back to the Edgar Pedley Index

Winchester (not the rifle)

Remember the old song "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band? How could you forget?

Well here I am in Winchester - or just outside it actually as I'm staying at a Premiere Travel Inn on the M3 motorway - silly place to put it, cars have to treat it as a roundabout...

I've been in and out of London today. Caught the train from Hatfield. A very busy station with trains passing through every couple of minutes, but only stopping there every now and then! Took me through a few places I've often heard of but never actually seen. "Potters Bar" always sounds a strange place name but from the train it looked quite a nice place...

Met up with some colleagues from the JISC Regional Support Centre for the South East region. We borrowed an office from the RSC for London on Guilford Street and I met a new member of the team, Harold. Good to meet up again with Ann and Adam who I've known for a few years.

We concluded our business and had lunch together then I headed back to Kings Cross where I was amused to see half a baggage trolley sticking out from a wall labeled "Platform 9¾"! I had my camera with me but I don't have the cable to transfer photos so you'll have to wait until Friday to see the photo! Anyway, good for Kings Cross - far too many companies feel humour is somehow unprofessional or demeaning. We all spend a lot of time at work - it should be fun as much as possible!

Got back to Hatfield to pick the car up and then drove down here - unremarkable journey. An early night is called for - I'm knackered!

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Tuesday in Hatfield

I've been at the University of Hertfordshire today, delivering a Project Management workshop for some of the university's administrative staff. A familiar face walked in the room and was a touch surprised to hear me recount meeting him 20 years ago on a BTEC Higher in Public Administration at what was then Preston Polytechnic! Obviously he must have made a bigger impression on me than I did on him! :-)

Feedback was good - we have a 3-point scoring system so it's either "poor", "satisfactory", or "excellent" and of 90 possible marks I got 74 "excellent" plus 16 "satisfactory".

Some individual comments under the headings on our feedback form:

Organisation of workshop - order, pace, time spent on each topic
"Felt a bit rushed - a lot to take in"

Appropriateness of content - tailoring of session to audience
"Very good fit to our requirements"

Presentation - style, use of visual aids
"Excellent presentation, made the subject very interesting"
"Lively, funny, and very useful"
"Excellent presentation"
"Very good"

Activities - interactive elements of the workshop
"Liked the small group work"

Additional comments
"Lively, great examples and illustrations. Many thanks"
"Very useful as had an HE (Higher Education) flavour"
"At times felt like a hard sell of infoKits" (our free online resources)
"Good overview of Project Management, good to point to the website for more in-depth stuff"
"John's style, subject knowledge and delivery was excellent"

Many thanks to the delegates for so many comments - one of my colleagues from another organisation was talking to me about feedback sheets the other day and said "Isn't it strange how you can knock yourself out putting on a good workshop and all the comments are about the food or how hot or cold it was...!" I think the University of Hertfordshire staff gave the lie to that one then!

Am staying in Hatfield overnight and then in and out of London for a meeting tomorrow, before driving down to Winchester to deliver a Change Management workshop on Thursday.

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