Yes…it’s true!

In the article entitled ‘The Old Powburn Shop’, I noted the following:

“In the ‘Powburn Golden Jubilee Cookbook’, there is an unattributed claim that Andrew Thompson’s grocer shop was “specialising in wholesale rabbit and game”. 

Well, we now have evidence that this was the case. May Wilson, who compiled the cookbook, has recently bought a set of three postcards. One of these is a business postcard for the Powburn Shop:

As can be seen in the image above, the pre-printed header clearly promoted the shop as a “Wholesale Rabbit and Game Dealer”.

The handwritten message reads:

“D Sir I will call at/ 12:10pm on tomorrow Tuesday/ I would like to get on by/ next train 12:43 to (?) if/ possible (Faithfully?) J Thompson”

We can be reasonably confident that the sender is Joseph Thompson (approx. 38 years old) the son of the original proprietor, Andrew Thompson. This is because the address side of the postcard is postmarked 2 August 1909. This is during the period 1901-1911 when Andrew Thompson had retired and three of his children were working in the family business: Andrew Thompson (Grocer Assistant), Elizabeth Thompson (Grocer Shop Keeper), and Joseph Thompson  (Grocer Shop Keeper) who, in 1901, were 18 years, 24 years and 30 years old respectively.

The postcard is addressed to:

“Dixon Archer & Thorp/ Solicitors/ Narrowgate H/ Alnwick”

This is the legal practice of ‘Dickson, Archer & Thorp’ based at Narrowgate House in Alnwick.

Other postcards

You can find information about the other two postcards recently purchased by May Wilson below.