Thorney, Cambridgeshire - Bridge - undivided back art postcard 1904 pmk

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  The Bridge at Thorney [Cambridgshire] - art postcard - undivided back postcard (these were the norm before the rules changed on writing the message on the address side in 1902 - this is a slightly late usage and very rare for smaller places)
• Publisher: 'Walford's Pen & Ink series' 
• Postally used: yes
• Stamp:  Edward VII half d bluish green (the earlier version)
• Postmark(s): Peterborough duplex pmk + Thorney cds 1904
• Sent to:  Miss F. Cave, 136 Camden Road, Camden Town, London
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one. No cards have been trimmed (unless stated).

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

Postage and packing charge should be showing for your location (contact if not sure).

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. Please wait for combined invoice. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

Thorney is a village about 8 miles (13 km) east of Peterborough in the City of Peterborough unitary authority, England, on the A47. Historically it was part of the Isle of Ely, which was considered part of Cambridgeshire but was transferred into the former county of Huntingdon and Peterborough and remained part of the Peterborough district into the transfer to Cambridgeshire and when it became a unitary authority in 1998.

Tracing its roots back to around 500 AD when it started out as a Saxon settlement, the existence of Thorney Abbey made the settlement an important ecclesiastical centre for a long period of time, and until 2014 was the most northerly point of the Anglican Diocese of Ely. In 2014 it was transferred to the Diocese of Peterborough.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the estate became crown property and it was granted to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford in 1550. At this time only a few hundred acres of the land was cultivatable. In the 1630s Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford spent a reputed £100,000 draining the fens, bringing almost all of the estate and parish of nearly 18,000 acres (7,284 ha) into agricultural use. A community of Walloon Protestant refugees, originally from areas of Flanders that are now northern France, was settled here in the 17th century with their own church and minister, employing the ruins of the abbey for services in their own language.^[2] The Walloons had expertise in fenland drainage. The Russell family's rents from the Thorney estate increased from £300 in 1629 to £10,000 by the early 19th century. The family, whose main seat was at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, occasionally resided at the manor house in Thorney village, which was known as Abbey House. The estate was sold to the tenants in 1910.

Much of the village was built at the command of the Dukes of Bedford, who wished to have a healthy place in which their estate workers could live. In the mid 19th century many buildings were added to the designs of the architect S.S. Teulon, himself a descendant of Huguenots. This explains the uniformity of the housing in the original centre of Thorney.

The 7th Duke of Bedford's model agricultural village included a modern water supply and sewerage scheme. This neo-Jacobean Tankyard building, now known as Bedford Hall, includes a 96 ft high water tower, erected in 1855,^[3] that supplied fresh water to the village. The building houses Thorney Heritage Museum, part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership.

The windmill on the outskirts dates from 1787 and contains six floors; it originally had six sails. During the war four German prisoners of war used it as a base during the day while working the land.

The village had a railway station on the old Peterborough to Wisbech line, and an additional station in the Parish at Wryde. The station and the line were closed in the early 1960s. Little evidence to suggest a rail link now remains, apart from level crossing gates at the side of Station Road; these gates are apparently not the original ones, the originals being much larger.

The A47 bypass opened in Winter 2005. The opening of the bypass has made the village much quieter.

The village's local school is the Duke of Bedford Primary School which is located next to Wisbech Road. There is also a specialist school at Park House for children with special educational needs.