A Christmas Surprise from Billinghay’s Past.

Earlier this year, I purchased a beautiful Christmas card from eBay. What made it truly special was the detail printed inside: it had been produced specifically for the Billinghay Post Office for Christmas 1921. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the perfect piece to feature in my Christmas blog.

What I didn’t anticipate was that this simple card would deliver far more than festive nostalgia. Once I began to look into its origins, it revealed an unexpected connection that linked the card directly to the people who lived and worked at the Billinghay Post Office over a century ago. So I decided to research Clara Smith, not realising she had appeared in my work before.

A Remarkable Link Between the 1921 Census and a Christmas Card.

When I wrote about the Billinghay Post Office in my summer blog, I explored the 1921 Census to understand who occupied the Post Office on Victoria Street at that time. The household was headed by Charles Edward F. Atchinson, who served as Sub-Postmaster, grocer, and stationer. Living with him were his wife, Betsy, and their daughter, Mary, who assisted her father in running the Post Office.

Also recorded in the household was a young domestic servant: 17-year-old Clara Smith from East Heckington. At the time, her entry seemed simply part of the wider picture of village life in the early twentieth century. One of many names that populate census schedules and help us reconstruct local history.

But then came the surprise!

A Personal Connection Across a Century.

The Christmas card I had purchased was addressed to “Nellie” and signed “From Clara Smith”. This small festive greeting was written by the same young woman I had encountered in the 1921 census, marking an extraordinary moment.

It is rare in local history research to find an artefact so directly connected to an individual named in the records. To see Clara first as a servant in the Atchinson household, and then again as the sender of this charming card, felt like the past reaching forward in a quiet but unmistakable way.

It is discoveries like this that make family and local history so endlessly rewarding. They remind us that behind every census entry is a real person with a voice, a life, and occasionally a Christmas card that survives long enough to be rediscovered a century later. An amazing coincidence.

Clara Smith. Servant.

This also explained why Clara had sent the card from the Billinghay Post Office; she was living and working there! Beginning my search into Clara’s life, I returned to the 1921 Census, where her name had first appeared in connection with the Atchinson household. From there, I was able to start uncovering more about Clara Smith.

As Clara would have turned 18 the following month, and knowing that Sleaford was the registration district for East Heckington, it did not take long to locate her birth registration. She appears in the third quarter of 1903, confirming her identity and providing the first firm detail in tracing her early life.

SMITH, CLARA. Mother’s maiden name: BARKS 

GRO Reference: 1903  S Quarter in SLEAFORD  Volume 07A  Page 446.

I then found the most likely marriage between a Mr Lewis Smith and a Miss Catherine Barks in 1901, registered in Sleaford, but to be totally sure, I had to order Clara’s digital birth record. I am pleased to say that my hunch was correct.

Now I was able to find the family on the 1921 census, parents Lewis and Catherine and Clara’s siblings, Robert, William, Lewis and Elizabeth.

Lewis Smith was employed by Mr W. W. Barnes, a farmer at Ferry Booth, Dogdyke, Lincoln. His long-standing service to the Barnes family was publicly recognised in the Lincolnshire and Boston Guardian on 19 June 1938, which reported that he had received an award for an exceptional 54 years of continuous service to Mr Barnes. This notice further underscores Lewis’s reputation as a loyal and dedicated employee.

Clara’s mother, Catherine, died on Sunday, 9th September 1951, as reported in the newspaper, along with lots more family information. Including the fact that one of their sons had died pre-1951, and the couple had five grandchildren.

Lewis Smith, Clara’s father, died just eight weeks later on 7 November 1951.

Clara’s Siblings.

Elizabeth, Clara’s only sister, was born on 16 October 1906. She later married George Hollingworth in July 1938. Clara served as a bridesmaid at the wedding: the marriage was announced in the Boston Guardian on 6 July 1938, which specifically noted Clara’s role in the bridal party.

Clara’s eldest brother, Lewis, had established himself as a smallholder, working his own land. In the spring of 1934, he married Dorothy Leverton. Owing to his occupation as an agricultural smallholder, Lewis was exempt from military service during the war.

Clara’s brother Robert married Jessie Carter on Valentine’s Day❤️ Thursday the 14 February 1935, as announced in The Standard, February 23 1935.

By the time of the 1939 register, Clara, unmarried, was living back with her parents, Catherine and Lewis, who was now a ‘Working Farm Foreman Heavy Worker’.

Clara was working doing ‘Part Time Farm Work’ and also working for the Red Cross in 1939, as many were. In 1939, as an unmarried woman living at home, she could easily have found a meaningful role with the Red Cross without ever needing to leave the countryside. Women from rural backgrounds often took on duties that fit around farm life, and she would have been an ideal recruit.

Unmarried women in their thirties were seen as reliable, available, and able to volunteer significant time. She might have served as a local VAD member or assisted at a village first-aid post, tended supplies in a Red Cross hospital depot, or helped with the influx of evacuee children who arrived that autumn. She may also have worked in a canteen supporting nearby RAF bases or taken on clerical and organising duties for her local detachment.

Living at home was entirely normal for women volunteers of the time, many of whom balanced their Red Cross service with the demands of family and farm.

Clara died in 1977, still resident in Lincolnshire; her death was registered in the Boston Registration District. Throughout her life in Helpringham, she appears to have been an active and well-integrated member of the local community, regularly participating in village fetes and in the life of the parish church. Which I demonstrated in this local newspaper.

The recipient of the lovely Billinghay Christmas Card, Nellie, is a mystery, but I’m assuming a friend.

As always, if you can share any old photos or stories about the Smith Family or Billinghay with me or have any connections, I would love to hear from you. Please comment here or email jackocats2@gmail.com

Merry Christmas to all our friends and followers, and a big welcome to our new followers! Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. I look forward to seeing you in the year ahead and sharing many more stories about our local history and the people who shaped it.