A POSTCARD delivered to Eynsham Hall three decades after it was posted is finally in the hands of its intended recipient.

The card, with a 1984 postmark, was addressed to Celia Pagel of the then Accountancy Training College, which was based at the hall that is now a hotel.

The hotel general manager Shaun Bowles was keen to reunite the long-lost postcard with its recipient but no-one there knew a Celia Pagel.

But following an article published in the Oxford Mail Ms Pagel got in touch.

The 55-year-old accountant, who lives in Wheatley, said: “I was amazed and stunned when somebody told me about it.

“When I saw it, I kind of gasped as it was very clearly me. My name was so clear and it would have been exactly the right time.

“It was a surprise.”

When the postcard was sent on June 4, 1984 Ms Pagel was a student, aged 25, at the college.

Now working part time at an electronics firm, she said: “It was an intense six-week course at the college and we worked really hard, so at the weekend I can believe one of the group went away and sent a postcard for fun.”

But the sender is still a mystery, with the postcard, received on Tuesday, December 23, signed anonymous.

She said: “I have a theory about whom it might be from but we have lost touch.

“We were a close group of friends at Eynsham and it is quite probable it was someone from that group.

“I am bit baffled why it was sent anonymously.”

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Mr Bowles said: “It is a bit strange that it has taken so long to get here but good that 30 years after it can still end up with the right person.”

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “We are very glad the postcard has finally been united with its destination after all this time.

“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.”

Eynsham Hall dates back to the 1700s and has retained many original features. From 1946 the Home Office used the hall for police training for 35 years before becoming an accountancy training centre in 1981.

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