WE like to set Remember When readers mysteries to solve, and here’s one of our best yet.

It involves Swindon, Devon, an out-of-the-way address near a small town in Nova Scotia and quite possibly stamp collecting – and the only clues are nearly 42 years old.

The two postcards were spotted in a charity shop in Totnes a few weeks ago and bought for a couple of pounds each.

Both are addessed to a Mrs Betty Eade who lived in Penhill Drive. We’ve obscured the house number for publication. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people living there today have never heard of anybody by that surname, and nor has anybody else we spoke to in the neighbourhood.

Both cards seem to have originated in Britain, as each has a prepaid printed stamp for four old pence - less than 2p in decimal currency.

Each was sent by a Brenda or possibly Breada Young, who gave her address as ‘RR#1 Hubbards NS Canada’. In Canadian addresses, NS is an abbreviation for Nova Scotia, and Hubbards is a rural town on its southern edge, facing the Atlantic. Its current population is only about 400. ‘RR’ stands for ‘Rural Route’, a post office designation for a place so far off the beaten track that it has to have special delivery and collection arrangements.

One card was sent by airmail and the other by surface mail. Both have stamps issued by Canada to mark Christmas of 1970, which used designs submitted by school children in a special competition, and both are dated and postmarked December 29.

One has the message: “Glad to be able to help out by sending this post card by surface mail.” The other has an identical message, but substitutes “airmail” for “surface mail”.

It’s possible that Betty Eade or somebody in her household was a stamp collector, but if that is the case, why are the stamps still attached to the postcards? It’s also possible that she or a loved one was a postcard collector, but why select these grey and rather dull non-pictorial cards?

For that matter, how did the cards come to be sent from a tiny coastal community in Nova Scotia rather than from, say, a stamp dealer in a city?

If you can answer any of these questions, or put us in touch with Mrs Eade or her family, we’d love to hear from you.