postcard.co.uk

Yesterday's Daily Telegraph had a short item about a postcard that should have been delivered in August 1908 arriving on a "doorstep" in Winthorpe, near Skegness. There was a similar case in February when "a card from the [Great War] trenches was "delivered" in Wiltshire.

Such articles give the media a chance to snigger at Royal Mail, but I'm 99.9% sure that the "late" deliveries are pranks. There can't be many sorting or post offices in the same premises and using the same furniture (pigeon-holes etc) as 90 years ago.

At fairs I've often seen old cards with addresses close to where I live, and the thought has crossed my mind that it might be fun to put such a card through the appropriate letter box. As with so many thoughts that cross my mind, I've never done anything further. No doubt there are people who don't mind disposing of a cheap card in this way (though the Wiltshire example did have a nice example of a Field Post office cancellation).

I would be far more impressed if a sealed envelope of the 1900s with the contents intact was "delivered" now.

Moonraker

Agreed that these late delivery stories are not what they seem, over the years I have had a one or two packets of cards coming to me which have come open in the post, and some of the contents have "escaped".

It's feasible that these went on to be delivered as addressed, so it may not even be pranks which are causing this.

See April Picture Postcard Monthly.

As a previous Royal Mail employee - I once straightend an old pile of mail bags which had laid crumpled for a long time. In the corner of one of the mail bags (tightly packed in) was a post card - it had been posted 30 years earlier. My Manager put it in a special envelope with a label saying
'' This item has been delayed''......Just a bit.