Here we have a toad, for a meal called either "toad in the hole" or "sausage toad". That is made by covering sausages with batter and as the batter rises in the oven it partially covers the sausages so that they look like the backs of toads in a pond. I never really got that, but never mind.
Swettenham Co-Operative Institutions were based in Staffordshire and had several sections, including a bakery, which opened just before the Second World War, or maybe because of it, and the tea with which our cards were issued.
This set is described in our original British Trade Index as :
ANIMALS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE. Sm. Nd. See D.210. Album issued. SWE-7
It is the same in our updated British Trade Index, save "1958" is in place of the word "Sm", and the handbook code is now HX-9.
D.210 is in the back of the same British Trade Index book, whilst HX-9 is in a separate volume, uniform with the updated version. Both tell us the set was also issued by others, and with different titles - namely :
ANIMALS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE or NATURE STUDIES. Nd. (25)
- Amalgamated Tobacco Corp ("Mills", issued in Mauritius) - 1957 - (Animals of the Countryside)
- Armitage Bros, Colwick - pet foods - 1964 - (Animals of the Countryside)
- Candy Novelty Co. Ltd, Bury - 1957 - (Animals of the Countryside)
- Halpin`s "Willow Tea" - 1957 (Nature Studies)
- Sweetule, Manchester & London - confectionery - 1959 - (Animals of the Countryside)
- Swettenham - confectionery - 1958 - (Animals of the Countryside)