It’s amazing what you find while clearing out the attic. While sifting through boxes in his Mother’s loft after her death, Viv Warne from near Pocklington, came across a postcard sent from Bempton in 1951.
So when he visited the East Yorkshire Coast nature reserve at Bempton Cliffs recently to celebrate his birthday, he brought the seventy year old card with him.
Viv Warne with his second wife, June.
His Nanna, Ethel Goom, lived in the village at Whitecote Cottage on Main Street until 1976. She sent the card to Viv’s Mum, shortly after she moved to the area.
Viv and his brother, Howard, often came to stay with her during the school holidays - even cycling all the way from his home in York one summer.
Viv recalls those times fondly:
‘Nana often took us to the cliffs to see the seabirds, which was quite a good walk. She was in her sixties then but was quite fit and was very proud that she could kick her own height!
She was very knowledgeable about wildlife and told us the names of the birds and the wild flowers we would see on the way. She also told us that during severe storms she could hear from her cottage the crash of parts of the cliffs collapsing.’
The central image on the postcard shows the ‘climmers’ – local men and women who would inch down the cliffs on ropes collecting seabird eggs before the trade became illegal.
Viv thinks his first visit to the cliffs was in 1953 or 4 and he’s visited almost every year since:
‘The cliffs hold such happy memories for me but they’re also a very special place in their own right. I loved them as a youngster and still do. And I hope generations of other families are able to enjoy the magic of them as mine has’.
Communications Officer, Maria Prchlik said:
‘It was wonderful to receive Viv’s postcard from the past. His Nanna sounds an amazing lady. It’s a joy for us to have played such an important part in his family’s history.
Ethel Goom (on the right) with Viv Warne, holding his eldest son, Richard, next to his late wife, Sue.