Could you solve card conundrum?

By Sophie Pierce
BBC Radio Devon

The colourful, quirky drawings caught Sophie's eye

I can never resist a charity shop, and was nosing around Paignton's RSPCA shop when my eye was caught by a postcard of the Avon estuary at Bantham.

It's one of my favourite places, where I love to swim, so I picked it up.

I was charmed to see the most evocative message, illustrated with quirky and colourful line drawings.

The authors, signed only "P, B, H, S, W" described a "great voyage of exploration" up the river from Bantham in their boat, "Kipper".

They explain how they started at low water, "navigating our way through diverse channels and sea sand banks" and then landed by an old kiln and made a fire to cook their soup on.

They saw "herons, cormorants and sandpipers", and "a great wind" blew them back.

The front shows the river Avon and Bantham

The postcard struck a chord.

I know the river very well, having swum down it from Aveton Gifford to Bantham on an outgoing tide.

It is magical. I know the lime kiln where they stopped, and have seen the herons and other wildlife they describe.

The card sums up beautifully the amazing Swallows and Amazons-type adventures you can have in Devon.

So who were this family having fun on their holiday?

And are they still sailing their boat up the Avon? We have only their initials: "P, B, H, S, W".

The card has a 10p stamp, but no postmark.

The postcard was sent to a couple in Solihull

However the British Postal Museum and Archive tells me the 10p stamp would date it to having been sent between 1979 and 1981, depending on whether it went first or second class.

The card is addressed to a Mr and Mrs D Liddell, at 62 Widney Road, Knowle, in Solihull.

Perhaps, with the power of the internet, we can find the family who loved messing about on the River Avon so much.

It certainly contained a very talented artist.

Do you know who wrote the postcard? Email us at [e-mail]