A story from a postcard

Told by Jill Gibb

It all started with an old postcard. I recently bought an interesting one from an internet seller. The photograph shows St. Guthlac’s Church in Market Deeping and Church Street before The Orchard and The Avenue were built. The houses opposite the church are thatched.

The card was posted in Market Deeping on 10th January, 1912, to a Miss E. L. Rutland at Wood Norton Rectory in Norfolk and the sender was someone with the initials O.M.L. who was staying at the rectory in Market Deeping. The text was most interesting so I decided to do some internet research.

The postcard, signed O.M.L. was sent by Olive May Lucinda Lipscomb, the wife of the rector of Wood Norton, East Dereham, Norfolk, one Charles Burton Lipscomb. She was then 28 years old, her husband was 20 or so years her senior. They had met when Olive’s father, the Reverend William Melville Pigot, was the incumbent at Eaton, on the outskirts of Norwich, and Charles was his curate. The recipient of the postcard was the cook at the Norfolk rectory, Emma Lavinia Rutland, then aged 31 years.

From the text on the postcard, I deduced that the Lipscombs planned to stay in Market Deeping at the rectory for several days after attending a party there on the previous day. All Saints Church Wood Norton

The rector of St. Guthlac’s at that time was Paul Ogilvie Ashby. He had been born in Cobham, Surrey, on 14th January, 1867, and had married Ellen Maud George in 1899 at Horncastle. He was awarded the Military Cross in January 1916, for conspicuous bravery at Ypres (pictured left). Paul Ashby had volunteered for service at the beginning of the war and had been chaplain to the 4th Lincolns.

The party at Market Deeping Rectory, to which the Lipscombs had been invited, was probably to celebrate Paul Ashby’s 45th birthday. His birthday fell on a Sunday, when both men would have been fully occupied in their respective churches, so celebrations took place a few days early.

The staff members living in at Market Deeping rectory at that time were Lucy Pell, the cook, aged 22 years, Ethel Mary Mowbray, the housemaid, aged 19 years and Lucy Emma Reynolds, the between-maid, aged 18 years. The gardeners or handymen were probably Market Deeping residents who came in on a daily basis.

The staff of four living at Wood Norton rectory consisted of Emma Rutland, the cook ,who was 31 years old, Edith Amelia Dady, the housemaid, 22 years, Albert Edward Scott, the chauffeur, aged 29 years and Alfred William Nunn, the gardener, aged 28 years. It is interesting to note that romance was blossoming there. Alfred Nunn married Emma the cook in the year after the party and they had three sons – Leslie, Eric and Laurence.

I found an interesting snippet about Olive Lipscomb’s clergyman father. Apparently The Beehive public house, still operating very successfully in Leopold Street, Eaton, was in 1898 a shop owned by a Mrs. Caroline Dix. She had applied for a beer house licence to be transferred to her premises from the Bird in Hand, King Street, Norwich. Fifty-two people had signed a petition in support. Olive’s father was the only person to oppose the application! Both rectories still stand but are now in private ownership, the one at Wood Norton as a single residence.

The two men gave lasting gifts to their respective churches during their incumbencies. Paul Ashby donated the large clock on the wall at the back of St. Guthlac’s Church in memory of his father, Richard Wallis Ashby, who died on 31st May 1911. After more than 100 years, it still keeps excellent time.

Charles Lipscomb presented a handsome silver communion chalice to All Saints Church in Wood Norton at Christmas in 1909. It, too, is still in regular use.

Paul Ashby of Market Deeping died in 1937. Charles Lipscomb died very suddenly on 6th October, 1928, after a happy day playing bowls at Hoxne.

Text of postcard:-

The Rectory, Market Deeping.

Jan:10.12 I had not a minute to send you a card yesterday as we had to get ready for the party directly we arrived. We got here at 3.30 and had a splendid run though the roads were bad. I forgot to tell you that Auntie might want a couple of fowls one day this week, if so Phoebe would let you know & will you see that they go off by rail as C could take them to Foulsham with Joan. He knows which they are – she may not want them yet. The house is just behind the church & this is the chief street. Notice thatched roofs on left! OML.

My thanks to Greg Ford, Alison Lord, Elizabeth Parkinson & Joy Baxter of Market Deeping and Deeping St. James, and to Jenny Marchant of Wood Norton.

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