Another card that tells two stories.

Sunny Side was the name given to a row of south-facing cottages built along the main Maidstone to Sevenoaks road through Borough Green in the late 19th century. I live just a few yards up the road to the right of this picture and walk past these houses every day on my way to the station.

The main road is now designated as the A25 and carries a very large volume of traffic, from bikes up to heavy articulated lorries. Any child playing in this road today would probably last no more that 5 seconds before being run over, but 110 years ago it was clearly a different story! Although this postcard was sent in 1915 (20 or 30 January), the photo is thought to date from the early 190os, when a number of other photos were taken of the village that were used on postcards.

As with the postcard of the Temporary School, the picture tells one story and the message on the reverse quite another, although in this case the blue dot links the two.

Here is what is written on the reverse:

Dear “Trissie”
Just a line to let you know I am O.K. I hear we may be going to the front next month. If I do I expect I shall be up for a day or so. Close now. With kindest regards, George E.J.

Dotted house other side where I billet

The 1911 Census indicates that a Miss Lizzie Hayes (at that time aged 18) lived in West Croydon with her parents, four brothers and an uncle called Charles Jones. If this is the Miss L Hayes, nicknamed Trissie, to whom our correspondent is writing then could George E. J. be a cousin perhaps?

He was evidently in the army, billeted in Borough Green in the house marked with the blue dot (enhanced in Photoshop to make it slightly easier to see), and was about to be sent to the Front.

I can’t help wondering - did he ever return?