A Time-Capsule from the Doone Valley: A 1937 Visit to Lorna Doone Farm

Every postcard in a collection serves as a quiet witness to a specific moment in time, but some possess a unique ability to blend literary legend with personal history. This week, I am highlighting a beautiful sepia-toned postcard from my collection that takes us to the heart of Exmoor: Lorna Doone Farm in the Doone Valley, North Devon.

Lorna Doone Farm, Devon

The Scene: Literary Landscapes in Sepia

The front of the card features an evocative, high-contrast sepia photograph. In the foreground, a rugged stone packhorse bridge with two distinct arches spans a calm stretch of water. Beyond the bridge sits a cluster of traditional white-walled buildings, including the farm itself, nestled against the rolling, wooded hills of North Devon.

This isn't just any farm; it is a site deeply intertwined with R.D. Blackmore’s 1869 masterpiece, Lorna Doone. For fans of the novel, this landscape represents the wild, romantic setting of the outlaw Doone clan. The presence of a horse-drawn carriage or "charabanc" outside the buildings suggests that by the 1930s, this area had become a firmly established pilgrimage site for literary tourists seeking a tangible connection to the story.

The Message: A "Grand Time" in Devon

While the front captures the timeless beauty of Exmoor, the reverse provides a vivid snapshot of life on August 3, 1937. Sent from the Dilkhusa Grand Hotel in Ilfracombe, the card was addressed to a Miss Warfold living at "Corrie" on West Hill Avenue in Epsom, Surrey.

The sender, "May," writes with the kind of infectious enthusiasm that only a seaside holiday can inspire:

"We are having a grand time in this lovely part of the world. The weather has been very kind to us - hot & sunny."

May goes on to describe the modern luxury of her trip:

"Have had some fine motor drives to Lynmouth, Minehead, Clovelly & over Exmoor."

It is fascinating to contrast the "fine motor drives" May enjoyed with the rugged packhorse bridge on the front of the card. While the landscape retained its ancient charm, the 1930s had brought a new era of mobility. Tourists were no longer limited to the local vicinity of their hotels; they could traverse the challenging terrain of Exmoor with ease, visiting multiple villages in a single day.

Postal History: The 1937 Stamp and Postmark

The card features a crisp, circular postmark from Ilfracombe, Devon, dated 4:45 PM. Affixed to the corner is a bright red One Penny (1d) stamp featuring the profile of King George VI.

This is a significant detail for philatelists and historians alike. George VI had only ascended the throne in December 1936 following the abdication of his brother. By August 1937, his image was becoming a standard fixture on the nation's mail, symbolizing a return to stability during a decade of immense political and social change.

The card was a "British Production" by Photochrom Co. Ltd. of Royal Tunbridge Wells, part of their "All British" series. This highlights the domestic pride in manufacturing and tourism that was prevalent during the inter-war period.

Preserving the Connection

What makes this postcard so special is the layers of history it holds. It connects the fictional 17th-century world of the Doones with the real-life 19th-century bridge and the 20th-century holiday experience of May and Miss Warfold. Looking at this card today, we are the fourth layer, looking back at a "hot and sunny" Tuesday in 1937 when a simple motor drive through the valley was the height of summer adventure.

Ancient Echoes in Sepia: The Temple of Heracles, Agrigento (1937)

There is a profound, almost silent weight to certain photographs. While my previous post explored the domestic warmth of a 1906 Warwickshire riverbank, today’s piece from my collection takes us much further back in time—and into a much more stark, monumental atmosphere. This is a real-photo postcard of the Temple of Heracles (Tempio di Ercole) in Agrigento, Sicily.

Temple of Heracles, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy

The Visual: A Forest of Stone

The front of the postcard features a striking sepia image of eight fluted Doric columns standing defiant against a pale, sprawling sky. This is the southern side of the temple, a detail noted in three languages—Italian, German, and English—on the reverse.

The Temple of Heracles is widely considered the oldest of the temples in the famous Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, dating back to the late 6th century BC. When this photo was taken, those stones had already weathered two and a half millennia of Mediterranean sun, salt, and conflict. The rugged texture of the calcarenite stone is palpable in this high-contrast print; you can see the deep grooves of the fluting and the massive, heavy capitals that once supported a colossal entablature. The foreground is a chaotic tumble of original masonry, reminding us that what stands today is a partial reconstruction—a "re-anastylosis" performed in the 1920s to bring these eight pillars back to the vertical.

The Provenance: 1937 and the "Serie Artistica"

Turning the card over reveals a wealth of historical context that is just as fascinating as the ruins themselves. Unlike the chatty, handwritten note from Emily in my Leamington post, this card remains unposted and pristine, serving as a formal "souvenir" of a specific era in Italian history.

The vertical text along the left edge identifies this as an "Edizione del Museo Civico" (Civic Museum Edition). Crucially, it is dated 1937 - XV. The "XV" refers to the fifteenth year of the Era Fascista (Fascist Era), a dating system used in Italy at the time. During the 1930s, there was a massive state-driven effort to excavate and promote Italy's classical past as a symbol of national strength and continuity.

The card was produced by Fotocelere in Turin, a company renowned for high-quality "Vera Fotografia" (True Photography) postcards. This wasn't a cheap mass-produced lithograph; it was a silver halide print designed to capture the fine detail of the stone, sold as part of an "Artistic Series" to sophisticated travellers visiting the Valley of the Temples.

The Valley of the Temples

Agrigento (ancient Akragas) was once one of the most powerful cities of the Magna Graecia. The Temple of Heracles was nearly as large as the Parthenon in Athens. Imagine these pillars covered in white stucco, painted with vibrant reds and blues, standing as a beacon for sailors approaching the Sicilian coast.

By the time this postcard was printed in 1937, the site had become a centrepiece of the "Grand Tour" for a new generation of motorized tourists. While the world was on the brink of another devastating global conflict, these columns stood as they do now: remnants of a civilization that thought itself eternal, reduced to a beautiful, haunting skeletal form.

Why Collect "Museum Editions"?

I love this card because it represents the intersection of ancient history and modern propaganda. It is a museum-sanctioned view of the past, captured with the best photographic technology of the 1930s. It lacks a personal message, but its "official" nature tells us how the world viewed these ruins just before the outbreak of World War II. It is a snapshot of how we curate and package "the ancient" for the modern traveller.