A couple have received a letter that was posted more than SIX DECADES ago.
John and Victoria Berryman are full of questions after receiving a letter from Germany that was posted in 1953. It talks about a newborn baby ... a baby that would become a pensioner this year.
It was sent to their home on Tyas Lane in Slaithwaite.
John, 74, said: “I know our postman Jonathan very well.
“We have a postbox at the top of the lane but he hand-delivered it to our door. He said ‘this has turned up at the sorting office.’
“It was already opened and the stamp was missing. He suggested it might have been because the stamp was rare and therefore valuable.”
The envelope was addressed to the house’s former owners Peter and Hannelore Hirst who lived there during and after World War Two.
The family had moved to Kent years before the Berryman family bought the property, but in another twist of fate actually stayed in the Berryman’s holiday cottage next door in 2010 just so they could visit their former home.
John said: “We thought ‘the Hirsts - we have met them. Where has this letter been for 65 years?!’ We are intrigued.
“I have never heard of a letter being delivered that late.”
Signed from a couple, including Richard whose surname was illegible, the letter mainly discussed their newborn named Alastair.
They thanked the Hirsts for their gift, including a pair of booties, and their last visit. They also said they were planning on sailing home from Hamburg to Hull and hoped the baby wouldn’t get seasick.
It was typewritten in English, with a few German words included such as ‘tante’ meaning ‘aunt’, and had a handwritten signature.
A photo of the baby is believed to be missing from the letter.
John, who has had many jobs including as a sailor and a teacher but is now retired, believes Richard was a British solider who married a German woman.
His wife Victoria, 72, hunted out the Hirst family’s booking form from their visit to the holiday cottage and emailed a scan of the letter to their daughter Hattie.
The letter was dated August 2, 1953 and it was delivered on December 30, 2017.
If he is still living, Alastair will be having his 65th birthday in 2018.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "It is very likely that the letter was recently found by someone and put back into the postal system, rather than being “lost” in our system. Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its sorting machines daily. Once at item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the letter.”
