When Richard Miller was searching his archives he came across the postcard featured below which might be of interest to not only Cottam residents but philatelists and deltiologists as well.

On the front there is a sepia vignette of St Andrew's presbytery - with the title 'Cottam Rectory' - which is printed to the left to allow space for a short message to be written.  The picture is almost identical to the one we have in our 'Pictures' section.   Link

On the reverse, the postcard is clearly addressed to 'Mrs Miller, Beechwood, Cottam, Preston' and the message is 'Kind regards' but there is no sender's name.

1.	The black marks around the church bell tower are not as a result of age but because whoever hand stamped the card must have done so with great gusto. This caused the ink to seep through to the front where there is a slightly raised edge.
2.	On the left (very faded in the picture) are the words 'HOOD, MBRO.' - Presumably the photographer/publisher's name and perhaps a professional society's initials.
3.	On the reverse is a note about the new regulation allowing a message to be written alongside the address.  Before 1902 messages could only be written on the front of the card.
4.	Thanks to the Post Office official's hand stamping enthusiasm - which has almost obliterated the King Edward VII half penny stamp - we can see that the postcard was sent from Preston at 1:00 p.m. on the 24th December, 1903.

In conclusion we can only speculate that the sender must have been sufficiently well-known to Mrs Miller for her to recognise the handwriting and - given the date - it might even have been intended as a Christmas greeting.