Saturday 24 November 2012

Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, The Red Lion c1907

Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, The Red Lion c1907. The Red Lion is a Grade II listed building built in the seventeenth century or earlier. The village of Hinxton is the home of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus.
The postcard was published by an uncredited publisher and posted in September 1907. The sender, Daisy Violet Martin, identifies one of the people in the picture as Willie Tarbit. The original postcard was very faded so I've had to enhance it. Click the postcard to enlarge. For more old photographs have a look at this week's Sepia Saturday blog.

Edit - I've added a scan of the back. It is tempting to speculate that the girl sitting on the fence on the left of the postcard is the sender, Daisy Violet Martin. We will never know...

Edit II - Research by Lisa B shows that Willie Tarbitt died shortly before this postcard was sent - see comments below. We think he may have been the boy with the bicycle.





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16 comments:

  1. I bet Mrs. Bouquet would have liked the first names of the sender of this card ;)

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    1. Do you mean Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced 'Bouquet')?

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    2. Spot on - her sisters are Daisy and Violet! LOL

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  2. I would have been intrigued to know who the lady was. Peter's comment made me smile - what no Onslow?

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  3. Does Daisy have a crush on the debonaire Willie Tarbit? Surely Willie is the gentleman posing with his bicycle.

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  4. The two lads on the right look very dapper, but Mrs. Bucket - I mean Bouquet - might have been unimpressed with the two leaning on trees.

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  5. as Willie Tarbit is an uncommon name, I looked him up, and there is a William John Tarbitt who died aged 17 in 1906, registered in the district of Linton, which I think would encompass Hinxton. That William Tarbit did, I think, have a brother called Thomas. So maybe Violet chose the postcard to remember Willie. I think Willie would be the one with the bike. It's a wonderful postcard and possibly quite poignant.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the research Lisa. I had no idea that this postcard had such a story. Poor Willie, to die at just 17 years old. I think you're right, Willie was probably the one with the bike.

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  6. Oh that little girl in the large bonnet is just adorable. Leatherhead? That's such an interesting name. I think the information that Lisa B. found is really cool too!

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  7. A wonderful image and a locale that seems to have had little change, except for traffic. The bonus back story gives it real extra value.

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  8. I always prefer your postcards with people in and especially youngsters, and this one has such a poignant story attached to it.

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  9. The people make the postcard more interesting than it would be otherwise.

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  10. I'm always amused when family members sign their full name, as if the recipient wouldn't be sure. My nephew does this whenever he sends me a thank-you note. But anyway, I'm glad I was a bit late visiting your blog so that I enjoyed full benefit of Lisa's research and others' responses.

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  11. Hearing the history of this postcard, thanks to Lisa's research certainly does make this quite a sad story. Poor Willie.

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  12. I find the top photo, rather unusual, as if a couple of them were lying in wait for some unsuspecting pub-patron. (Maybe I've been watching too many D.I. Banks episodes!)

    I only wish they hadn't not painted "The Red Lion" pink!

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  13. I now own the Manor house opposite the pub, which was originally a guildhall, and is the oldest building in the village, dating back to 1452. You are right, little has changed, apart from the number of cars in the street.

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