Did you catch the Christmas post ? One of the deadlines on the run up to Christmas is to catch the post before it is too late. I was rather dismayed when posting parcels that they no longer had stamps stuck on them, but the post office weighed them then printed off a rather dull postage receipt that was stuck onto the parcel. How disappointing for the recipient, and it made me look again at stamps, their design and meaning. I collected stamps as a child, it filled in wet Saturday afternoons, and taught lessons about different parts of the world. The variety of stamps that came through the post was fairly limited, so you asked people to save you stamps if they had letters from abroad, and I vaguely recall that if you collected tokens from Quaker Oats you could send off for a pack of foreign stamps. Once a year a Christmas card and letter arrived from an aunt in Australia, and these stamps must have been collected over a number of years. How many have childhood stamp collections hidden away in cupboards ? Get them out and take a fresh look. Husband also collected stamps as a little boy, and he has TWO albums of stamps, a far superior collection to mine, which includes lots of first day covers. I can see that there may be a time when the postal system and stamps will disappear, so perhaps more should collect them now. Just before Christmas two grandsons came to stay, a nine year old and a nearly eleven year old. Anticipating that the weather might not be good I thought I could spend Saturday afternoon starting them off on stamp collecting. Ha ! How different the two boys are. One was totally not interested at all, the other was. So with the interested child we got a magnifying glass, tweezers to handle the stamps and stamp hinges, cut up envelopes leaving a margin round the stamps, soaked them off (how different the glue is now, more difficult to get a whole stamp off without damaging it), talked about the designs, the denomination of money, the sizes and shapes. I had bought a collection to start them off, and I learned an awful lot about international football from the incredible information the nine year old knew. We talked about the different countries and the trophies and the colours of the football strips and which year international competitions were held in different parts of the world. Most enlightening for Grandma. Way back in my childhood we had a post lady called Mrs Aylott, who walked the two miles from the village, up hill all the way, to deliver our post. She was always a welcome visitor, and we admired her stamina, carrying her postal bag, climbing over stiles, trudging through fields, and she had more distant farms to deliver to than ours. The post was important and had to be delivered, something that towns folk would take for granted. Can't you just feel the weariness of those lead horses ? This picture is called "The Mail Coach in a snow storm" by Charles Cooper Henderson [1803 - 1877] at the Tate Gallery [on the ArtUk website] This is the sort of picture that was popular on Christmas cards some time back, conjuring up the Dickensian image of the festive season. Carlisle Patriot 26 January 1828 Brough, January 23rd On Thursday . A considerable fall of snow from the East took place, accompanied with a strong wind, which, towards night, increased in violence. The Glasgow mail coach left Mr Fryer’s Inn, drawn by six excellent horses, about midnight, with coachman and postillion (who have been accustomed to the Stainmoor road both day and night for a great many years) and five passengers , including the Right Hon Lord Napier and Captain Graham of the Royal Navy. With considerable exertions they struggled onwards till they got rather more than three miles , upon an elevated part called Slape Stones Pasture; but from the violent effects of the wind and snow (direct in their faces) by which men and horses were blinded, they found themselves off the road and exposed to the greatest danger, almost overwhelming. J Borrowdaile, the coachman, took one of the leading horses and endeavoured to find the road; but after waiting in the greatest suspense for an hour, Butler, the guard, took one of the lamps and struggled forward to search for the lost coachman; but he too was soon lost to either sight or hearing. In the mean time Borrowdaile returned, and was again dispatched by the passengers to look for the guard. After a great deal of exertion of body and mind, the horses on a state of great hazard, from cold, on account of their laborious attempts to force the coach through, and afterwards standing still so long almost covered with snow, the resolution was taken to return, as there was no possibility of proceeding further. Capt Graham declared that he had experienced many a storm, but a storm of Stainmoor surpassed them all ! After considerable time and difficulty in getting the coach dragged round, they returned to the inn at Brough, to the great satisfaction of all concerned, having been exposed to the weather four hours, and tranversed three miles and back. As soon as daylight appeared, the coach went forward with six fresh horses. Some of the horses first employed are not yet fit to leave the stable for any other purpose than a gentle walk. Imagine that journey if you have cause to cross the Pennines on the A66 ! A whole network of coaching inns had stables full of horses to service the Mails. They were the fastest of the stage coaches, often travelling through the night, blowing the posthorn to tell the Turnpike gatekeepers to open the gates. The inns also served as post offices where you went to deliver or collect your letters. But the first Royal Mails were sent by a single man on a horse. Henry VIII began the system of having post horses provided at key points to relay the messengers across the country. London to Chester was one of the most important routes, which sent and received messages from Ireland. The next in importance was London to Berwick along the Great North Road. One of the most famous pieces of Royal News despatched on horseback was in the early hours of the 24th March 1603 when Sir Robert Carey, a relative of Queen Elizabeth through the Boleyn family, rode to Scotland. Queen Elizabeth drew her last breath and Carey left Richmond in Surrey on horseback in the early hours, he never stopped until he got to Doncaster, 162 miles. He had already posted horses along the route. At Doncaster he had a short sleep, but then rode to Widdrington in Northumberland, 136 miles. Another 49 miles took him to Norham where he fell off his horse, and although bruised and injured, remounted and continued another 50 miles and was in Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh by the evening of the 26th March to kneel before his new king, James the VI of Scotland. James left Scotland on the 5th April and made a more stately progress to London arriving on the 7th of May. At the moment I have a book borrowed from the library called "The Great North Road then and now" by Chris Cooper, who was a wagon driver, and has researched the route of the old Great North Road and compared it with the modern road network. It is fascinating to see all the changes in fairly recent times, the road went through towns and villages, was halted by many level crossings, and had petrol stations, tea shops, cafes and inns all along the route. Now it is nearly all motorway. But back to the post. This is the Fleece at Thirsk, still a rather nice hotel. Once Thirsk had stabling for hundreds and hundreds of horses as it was at a staging post north of York and south of Darlington. This is from Tom Bradley's "The Old Coaching Days in Yorkshire" which is full of stories about the old inns and the Post Boys (who were not boys but men) all along the main routes. It is on https://archive.org The network of mail coaches which crossed the country was devised by John Palmer of Bath [1742 - 1818], and took advantage of the improved roads which had been turnpiked. Does the post still travel by rail ? This picture is called "Euston Station, loading the travelling Post Office" by Grace Lydia Golden [ 1904 - 1993] at the Postal Museum. This picture is called "Loading the Air Mails for the Empire at Croydon" by Harold Sandys Williamson [1892 - 1978] also at the Postal Museum. What news did it carry ? it makes you think of families in the far flung parts of the world, but connected by letters. How far could it go before refueling ? And going even further back in time, this picture is called "Loading the transatlantic mail at Falmouth" also by Harold Sandys Williamson and at the Postal Museum (pictures all on the ArtUk website). Which could take us down the line of Captain Robert FitzRoy and the establishment of the Meterological Office for forecasting weather and the Shipping Forecast, so beloved of insomniacs like myself. What news did these stamps carry ? Condolence or congratulations ? Love letters or business ? The dread of examination results ? The mundane news of family life ? A simple stamp could be the bearer of such a variety of news. Unexpected or long watched for, a letter or parcel could change someone's life. So I will end my December blog by wishing all who have got this far in reading it very best wishes for the rest of the Christmas season and a very Happy New Year. May you receive good news in the post.
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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