One hundred and twenty-one years is a long time to wait. It was far too long for Miss Lydia Davies to receive the postcard addressed to her which was sent in 1903 only to arrive at her place—the same old building today—on Aug. 16, 2024, a full 121 years later.
The postcard printed in black ink features a wintry scene with snow-covered mountains, an antlered stag crossing a fallen log, and a lake reflecting a starry night sky. On the back, the recipient’s name is scrawled in ink pen along with the address: 11 Cradock Street, Swansea.
Today, the old building, in Wales, is no longer a dwelling but a mortgage office, the Swansea Building Society, established in 1923, which occupies a row of three addresses including 11 Cradock Street. When the vintage postcard arrived in the mail, staff were astonished.
“It turned up completely out of the blue on Friday,” the society’s marketing and communications officer, Henry Darby, said in a press release. “The postman came to the door as normal with lots of letters regarding mortgages and savings, and as one of the managers was sorting through it, this postcard dropped onto the table—no envelope, no note, just as it was.”
Darby noted the King Edward VII stamp fit the 1903 postmark perfectly.
They could not wait to read the words scribbled sideways on the back in the portion designated for communication, though not fully legible:
“Dear L. I could not, it was impossible to get the pair of these. I am so sorry, but I hope you are enjoying yourself at home. I have got now about 10 [unreadable] pocket money not counting the train fare so I’m doing alright,” it read.
The message went on to make special mention to “Remember me to Miss Gilbert + John with love to all from [unreadable.]”
Staff took an interest in the postcard and began to probe into its message and origins. It appears to have been sent from Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, the press release stated. It seems to reference something—a “pair of these”—which both the sender and recipient understood but was unspecified.
The sudden emergence of the 121-year-old postcard prompted the society to launch a social media inquiry, seeking any information on Miss Lydia Davies or its history.
“The address is correct,” Darby said. “But it’s 121 years later than expected. It’s wild, actually; a little bit spooky. The stamp is King Edward, who was king from 1901 until 1910, and you could tell right away from the handwriting and the language that it was very much of the time.”
He added that he would love to know more about what life was like on Cradock Street 121 years ago. So far, they have gathered from archives that the building was once filled with traditional homes that were later bombed. The office is a rebuild but the address is the same.
Looking deeper, staff revealed that performances by the likes of Oscar Wilde as early as the 1860s were hosted right across the road in Albert Hall. Could Davies, who apparently once lived here, have taken in a show?
As to the question of how the postcard fell into obscurity and turned up over a century later, a Royal Mail spokeswoman reportedly said this:
“It is likely that this postcard was put back into our system rather than being lost in the post for over a century. When an item is in our system, we are under obligation to deliver it to the correct address.”
