While sorting through some old postcards the other day I came across this photograph (undated) of the forge in The Wergs, near Wolverhampton. But the photograph is only half the story as on the reverse is a message written to my great uncle, Tom Diggory (born 1893) from someone called W. Bright.
The postmark might have given us a date, had it not been stamped right on the edge, meaning, frustratingly, the year is missing. But there are clues that this would be prior to WW1.
Mr Bright (could the W stand for William?) is writing from Wergs Hall and the card is
addressed to Tom at Craigo House, near Montrose in Scotland. The message mentions Ada and Annie. On the 1911 census, the names Ada and Annie are listed as being housemaids at Wergs Hall, which fits with what I know about Tom, that he was in service and was also listed as a servant at Wergs Hall on the same 1911 census. So were the family away in Scotland and Tom had gone with them as part of his duties as footman.
Mr Bright says something about Tom finding a catching "lassie" and that they're wondering whether Tom has fallen in love with any of the girls there!
I wonder who the people are in the photo? The blacksmith and his assistants, probably. As W Bright obviously knows Ada and Annie, it suggests he's also in service at the hall, but who is he? The trail begins...
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