Yemen

This postcard is from Ethel Swaffield to her nephew Leslie Swaffield at The Bungalow, Ampthill.  She was travelling on the SS Mantua and the card was posted from Aden.

The message reads 'I don't supose your ship was as large as this, that you went to Scotland on. We have crowds of people that you can never find any one you want. Love Auntie Ethel.' [ref.SFM3/107]

Ethel had previously worked as a nanny in Calcutta.

A later association with Aden is this plan for a development of a new town in the country in 1960:

Why are these documents at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives?

The Swaffield collection, reference SFM, was deposited at  Bedfordshire & Luton Archives in 1972. The collection consists of papers concerning properties in Ampthill and surrounding parishes, family correspondence, and records of organisations they were involved with such as the Bedfordshire Shire Horse Society and the Beds Chamber of Agriculture & Farmers Club.

The listing of the huge collection of architects MEPK is still a work in progress, and this document is not yet fully catalogued. This collection was donated by MEPK on the closure of their offices in Harpur Street, Bedford in 2010.