september 9th 1908 B. Burt to Miss Hartnall

montacute, somerset to Paddington green, london

133 miles

The Message

"Am having a fine time the weather here is lovely now. We went out nut gathering + blackberrying + Monday we went to Adcombe feast + had a fine time.
With love
B. Burt"
 

The Sender

There are no clues about who B. Burt is.

The Recipient

There are three possible Miss Hartnalls as there were three sisters living at the address in Paddington Green. They are Ellen Maude (1883-1931), Marguerite Beatrice Florence (1887-1967) and Madeline Ruth Violet (1892-?). They wee the daughters of the unlikely named William Hartnall Hartnall (1848-1926) and Ellen Andrews (1851-1931). There were also three brothers William Charles George (1873-1923), Horace Cornelius (1878-1937) and Percy Andrew (1880-1882) who sadly did not survive childhood. William Hartnall Hartnall's occupation is given as a Carpet Planner in a furniture business.

The confusing thing about this family is that they used family names for the girls on the census and not proper names. Ellen is listed as Ella, Madeline is listed as May or Mary, but the most confusing of all was Marguerite who was listed as Daisy, Marguerite being a type of daisy.

There is no clue as to which sister this card was addressed to. Ellen died a spinster. Madeline emigrated to the Canary Islands in 1940 and who knows what became of her. Marguerite married Charles Willie Harbottle (1890-1943) in 1921 and they had one son, Basil John (1925-1997).

The Places

Montacute, Somerset

Adcombe, Somerset

Paddington Green, London

Stoke under Ham, Somerset

What the card says to us

This is just a simple holiday postcard. The most interesting thing is about the names used on the census. Surely it is illegal not to give the full name as it appears on the birth certificate, even in 1911.