The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The image is a glossy real photograph.
The card was posted in Hull on Saturday the 3rd. August 1963 to:
Mrs. W.A. Burgoyne,
c/o C.E.P.O.,
C.O.D.,
Tidworth,
Hants.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"I hope this puts you
one ahead.
Having an exhausting
time.
Hope you've got my
stick of rock for when
I get back.
A."
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea.
The town of Wyke on Hull was founded late in the 12th. century by the monks of Meaux Abbey as a port from which to export their wool.
Renamed Kings-town upon Hull in 1299, Hull has been a market town, a military supply port, a trading hub, a fishing and whaling centre and industrial metropolis.
Hull was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars. Its 18th-century Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, took a prominent part in the abolition of the slave trade in Great Britain.
After suffering heavy damage in the Second World War (the 'Hull Blitz'), Hull weathered a period of post-industrial decline, gaining unfavourable results on measures of social deprivation, education and policing.
In the early 21st. century spending boom the city saw large amounts of new retail, commercial, housing and public service construction spending.
Tourist attractions include The Hull People's Memorial, the historic Old Town and Museum Quarter, Hull Marina and The Deep aquarium.
The University of Hull was founded in 1927 and now has more than 16,000 students. Hull was the 2017 UK City of Culture and in the same year the city's Ferens Art Gallery hosted the prestigious Turner Prize.
The Hull Blitz
Hull's port and industrial facilities, coupled with its proximity to mainland Europe and ease of location being on a major estuary, led to extremely widespread damage by bombing raids during the Second World War; much of the city centre was destroyed.
Hull had 95% of its houses damaged or destroyed, making it the most severely bombed British city or town in terms of number of damaged or destroyed buildings, apart from London, during the Second World War. More than 1,200 people died in air raids on the city, and some 3,000 others were injured.
The worst of the bombing occurred in 1941. Little was known about this destruction by the rest of the country at the time, since most of the radio and newspaper reports did not reveal Hull by name, but referred to it as 'a North-East town'.
Most of the city centre was rebuilt in the years following the war. As recently as 2006, researchers found documents in the local archives that suggested an unexploded wartime bomb might be buried beneath a major new redevelopment, appropriately named the Boom, in Hull.
The Cavern Club
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 3rd. August 1963, the Beatles performed at The Cavern Club in Liverpool for the 275th, and final time, nearly 18 months after their first appearance on the Club's stage on the 9th. February 1961.
The Suicide of Stephen Ward
The day also marked the death at the age of 50 of Stephen Ward, three days after taking an overdose of barbiturates.
Stephen was an English osteopath, and a central figure in the Profumo affair. In his suicide note, he wrote:
"It's a wish not to let them
get me. I'd rather get myself."
The Searchers
Also on the 3rd. August 1963, the Number One chart hit in the UK was 'Sweets For my Sweet' by The Searchers.
