Flea Market Postcards - Blanchland

Recently I visited a flea market in the Green Dragon Yard, Stockton-on-Tees. There I discovered one stall with a box of postcards for sale. I bought four cards all addressed to the same lady in Hartlepool. The postmarks covered the period from 1960 – 1973.

The card showing the Lord Crewe Arms and the 15^th century gatehouse at Blanchland, Northumberland was not franked. However the 5.1/2p stamp meant that it would have sent after 1971 and before 1975

(From a an original painting by E I Forrest)

The name 'Blanchland' means 'white land', and comes from the white robes worn by monks who established a monastery there in 1165. The abbey disbanded by Henry VIII. The abbot’s house became an inn, the Lord Crewe Arms. Many of the village cottages seen today were built from stone scavenged from the old abbey buildings.

The vast fireplace within the Lord Crewe Arms is where ‘General’ Tom Forster hid during the 1715 Jacobite rising. The ghost of his sister, Dorothy is said to haunt the hotel.

Blanchland was bought by the Bishop of Durham, Nathaniel Lord Crewe in 1708, and on his death in 1721 Blanchland became part of a charitable trust established by his will. A popular destination for visitors from all over the world, Blanchland is reputed to be one of the prettiest villages in England.