25 years ago - February 4, 1983

4:24pm Thursday 31st January 2008

A STUDLEY couple were surprised to find a colourful postcard of Newquay among their mail one morning last week.

Doug and Alice Smith, of Middletown Lane, couldn't think of anyone they knew was on holiday.

A closer inspection of the card was even more surprising - it carried a ninepence stamp, and was posted in 1977.

"It is very pleasant here - a very good hotel," their old friend Mrs Win Lamb, of Manor Road, Studley, had written.

Mr Smith, who was a postman for 21 years, said he could not remember anything like it happening before.

He believes the card was lost "in the works" and finally turned up in a new year clear-out. The card also has a January 1983 stamp from Stratford.

"Because it's only a postcode, it's quite funny," said Mrs Smith, "but what if it had been an important letter?"

Mr John Corr, postmaster at Stratford, said: "I could not begin to understand how it got to Stratford."

Normally mail addressed to Studley would be stamped at Redditch.

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