Ruth's Blog

One of the strangest items recently donated to the museum, was a coconut.  Our Museum Collections Policy tells us that we should collect only material relating to Louth and the neighbourhood.  So why did we accept a coconut?

Miss Mabel Rice was a tailoress, who for many years worked in Louth for Coney’s the tailors.  (Their premises was in Eastgate and is now ‘The Card Factory’.)  This middle-aged lady got on well with her doctor, who was African.  When he told her that he was going to return home to Accra in the Gold Coast, she asked him to send her a postcard.  This was in 1956, when Ghana was still a British colony.

Back in Accra, Dr Buady decided that it would be more exciting for Miss Rice to receive a coconut rather than a simple postcard.  The sending of unwrapped green coconuts from the Gold Coast through the postal service was an accepted practice.  The name and address of the recipient was carved on the surface of the coconut, along with the name of the sender, and postage stamps were attached.  Also, a customs declaration label, in this case stuck on with Sellotape.

Miss Rice, who lived in Gospelgate, was delighted to receive the coconut.  Over the decades it gradually dried and became brown.  Now, more than 65 years later, Miss Rice’s niece has kindly donated the coconut to us, along with its unusual story.