Postcard found during Coventry kitchen revamp to be returned

The postcard is dated August 1937

A postcard is going to be reunited with the family it was intended for almost 80 years after it was sent.

Dated August 1937, it was found between tiles during a kitchen renovation at Katie Tiplady-Startin's terraced home in Coundon, Coventry.

Gordon Nettleton - the man it was addressed to - has now died.

But Mrs Tiplady-Startin has been able to find his son Tim using a combination of Facebook and the genealogy website Ancestry.

The postcard was found between tiles during a kitchen renovation in Coventry

Speaking about the moment she heard from Tim, she said: "It was really exciting.

"It was Sunday and this name popped up in my email and I thought 'finally I have found him'."

George Nettleton lived in the house in the 1930s and the sender, his cousin Martin, was planning a visit to see him.

The postcard - featuring a half penny stamp of King George - shows Martin in his car on the front.

A picture of Martin, who wrote the card, is seen in his car on the front

It says: "I expect to leave Wetherby about 10am on Monday 9th... as the distances is ... miles I should reach you by 2pm.

"I approach on the Netherton Road and will ask a bobby the way to your house.

"This is my car in the garden of my house where I now am until the 7th, Martin"

Mrs Tiplady-Startin plans to send the card by recorded delivery to Tim Nettleton's home in Switzerland.

Tim Nettleton said it was a "wonderful find" and he could remember visiting the home when he was young.

He said: "The Nettleton's moved to Coventry in the '30s from Yorkshire and bought the home in 1933.

"I have no idea how the postcard got into the wall. I guess simply propped on the tiles and there was a gap."