Philip was delighted to find an old postcard showing the very cottage where he once lived and his 20 years of collecting stemmed from there.

He now lives in Belsize, having come to the area in 1967.

Now that picture of The Wheatsheaf and houses nearby feature in his fascinating book of cards published last month and launched on Friday, June 20 at a special function organised by the village's local history society - of which he is treasurer.

The book was joyfully received by villagers and Philip sold 60 copies on the first evening.

A Postcard from Sarratt illustrates how, in the days before
emails, even telephones, people used the frequent and cheap ordinary mail service simply to ask how friends and relatives were faring or impart a quick bit of news.

Philip built up his collection from purchases from art shops and postcard fairs and the internet.

Now 67, Philip has retired from his lifetime job as a research engineer with the Building Research Establishment at Garston, and though this book is completed, he is still collecting Sarratt postcards and if anyone has any lying unused in a drawer or album at home, he would be pleased to hear of them.

He can be contacted on philip.buller@tiscali.co.uk.

A total of 70 cards feature in the book, each with a comprehensive explanatory caption.

He said: "That involved a lot of work, checking in records offices and so on."

The book includes only postcards covering the civil village of Sarratt, where possible, and they are arranged in geographical order working south from Great Sarratt Hall along the Green and down Church Lane.

The final picture in the book probably dates from the end of World War 1 showing an Avro 504A Flying Corps training aircraft that has crash landed.

It is not known if this was in Sarratt, but it was probably very close as the publisher is George Walker of Sarratt Green.

Local photographers of the day published their own cards and others also had cards published privately.

Do you know anything about the plane? Philip would love to hear.

Two photographs showing how the years have taken their toll are a springtime view with cherry trees in flower entitled Under the Hill Commonwood.

It shows an open vista where now the foreground is overgrown with trees.

And Plough Lane is shown looking remote and empty where today tree growth has changed the appearance of the lane considerably.

The book sells at £9.99 and is available at Sarratt Post Office and the Stanley Stores in Chipperfield.

Further copies can be supplied by Mr Buller on the email address above.

Mr Buller has also published Pots, Platters and Ploughs - Sarratt Wills & Inventories 1435-1832 with his first wife, Barbara, in 1982 and also Sarratt Byways Revisited with his second wife Connie in 2000.