IPSWICH: It took more than 30,000 days and in excess of 700,000 hours... but a postcard sent in 1927 to an Ipswich home has finally reached its destination.

Stunned Glynis Cook, 42, couldn’t believe her eyes when she went through her mail on Tuesday morning.

In among the bills and the flyers was a postcard sent to her home in Cemetery Road, Ipswich, dated June 21, 1927.

The postcard, which was sent from Exeter in Devon and is in pristine condition, appears to have been sent from a man to a woman addressed as Dolly Rix.

Ms Cook said: “I couldn’t really believe it when I came across the postcard – I thought it was a wind-up!”

The speed at which the postcard travelled from the south west to Suffolk measures 0.0003 miles per hour – one hundred times slower than a garden snail.

A spokesman for Royal Mail today admitted they were unable to explain the late delivery.

Ms Cook said: “It is dated June 21, 1927 and has the Ipswich postmark for Monday, meaning they only received it this week.

“It has a picture of Exeter Cathedral on the front and a stamp with George V’s head on it, costing one penny, on the back.”

Ms Cook, a mother-of-two, added that it was hard to identify what the writing on the back of the card said.

It appears to be from a man telling a woman about his holiday and mentions a trip to the races at Ascot.

He describes seeing women in ‘wonderful dresses’ and men in ‘cashmere clothes’. It is signed ‘love from Bobs’.

Ms Cook said: “Although the card hasn’t faded, the writing on the back is really small and very difficult to make out.

“Why it took so long to deliver god only knows. You hear about these things but 83 years must be a record.”

A spokesman for Suffolk Records Office confirmed that a Horace Phillip Reed Rix lived at Ms Cook’s address back in 1927.

And Ms Cook is now keen to find out whether any relatives of Mr and Mrs Rix are still living in the area.

She added: “For the time being I’m going to keep the postcard on my mantelpiece but it would be fascinating to find out if the name on the postcard means anything to anyone.

“I would also like to know why it took Royal Mail 83 years to get it delivered to my house!”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “It is extremely unlikely that this item of mail was in our system all this time.

“It is difficult to speculate what may have happened, but almost certainly it was put back in a post box very recently, as we regularly check all our sorting offices and machines are cleared.”

n Do you recognise the name on the postcard? Contact our Newsdesk on 01473 324788 or e-mail starnews@eveningstar.co.uk.