Thomas Sampson of Demesnes Mill House,
Barnard Castle.
(Please to see the Scrapbook Press Clipping of 24/01/1948:- 'Imperial Service Medal for Barney Man'.)
Please to see the page dedicated to Postman 176
John William Walker of Egglestone.
Pte J.T. Kavanagh - 'Jack'.
From the 'Debt of Honour Register' at the Commonwealth War Graves Commision [page] please find details of our 5 Fallen WW1 Postmen:
Please contact the author, via either the guestbook or shoutbox, if you have any more photos to contribute. Cheers.
War Memorials Survey Project - Royal Mail has recognised the need to better record the memorials in its care, to make information on them more accessible to the public that funded them and to maintain an active database to record changes or re-locations of its memorials: www.postalheritage.org.uk/wiki/WarMemorialsInThePostOffice
In recognition of this the BPMA have now been commissioned by Royal Mail to undertake a survey of all the memorials on Royal Mail premises and to make the data captured available online. The completion of the project will coincide with an exhibition to mark the 90th anniversary of the end the First World War that will be developed by the BPMA in November 2008.
Postmen c. 1938.
Back row from left - George Stannard (in suit - probably the inspector); George Whitfield; Wilf Robinson; Abe Brown & Tom Ireland.
Bottom row - Fred Robinson & Ronnie Lowe (both telegraph boys).
Ronnie Lowe's son Barry has made contact and supplied us with the names of those pictured in the 'top yard' together with the following info:
The Teesdale Mercury 03/05/1989 identifies names to your above picture. It quotes: "Some of the Teesdale postal staff before World War II".
Photo taken in the top yard of the Sorting Office, Flatts Road, Barnard Castle.
(Note the petrol pump over Tom Ireland's right shoulder.)
Could number 3 be our mistery Postman taken 10 years earlier on the corner of John Street and Galgate West below?
See a better image, as seen in the Bowes Museum, below.
No. 11 The Bank, circa 1916, was formerly Ascough's now Connelly's toy shop. Apart from a change in the glazing the front is much the same today. Recruitment of soldiers, for the First World War, was of paramount importance at the time (as illustrated by the enlistment posters). The Post Office has been in five separate locations:- Bridgegate, Newgate, The Bank, Horsemarket and Galgate (currently at No. 2-4). Bands, on the left uniform breast, indicate degrees of seniority. The front row is seated on parcel baskets. Parcels Post was introduced in 1883 using these baskets loaded to horse-drawn parcel coaches. The last horse-drawn mail van left London ECDO on Sept. 24, 1949.
Readers boost postie photograph exhibition - from the Ehco archive, first published Monday 6th Feb 2006.
AN exhibition of photographs of postmen on their rounds in decades gone by has received a boost, thanks to a report in The Northern Echo.
Readers have sent in a batch of other old pictures to add to the display in the delivery office at Barnard Castle.
Dave Charlesworth, the delivery office manager, is now having them copied, and he hopes other readers will send in more to make the exhibition even more fascinating.
Trevor Ireland, who lives in Startforth, has taken in a number of photographs featuring his late grandfather, Tommy Ireland, who was a popular postman in Upper Teesdale until he died in 1943 at the age of 48.
One shows him standing in snow beside a small Royal Mail van, registration number BLH 485, which was a familiar sight in the dale for many years.
Tommy Ireland had a reputation for getting through snowdrifts in it to make his deliveries while other vehicles were halted.
Tom Ireland delivering the Middelton-in-Teesdale mail during the 1930s.
(The other postmen are unknown at present.)
Details of Tom Ireland's mailvan from the Post Office Vehicle Club:
Dave
Yes, the vehicle illustrated is a pre-war Morris Minor 35cf. mailvan. It was part of a batch of six BLH 481-486 with serial numbers 5980-5 delivered in November 1934. The cypher illustrated is the George V one, used up to March 1936, suggesting the photograph was taken in the winter of 1935/6.
Do you know where the pictures were taken? Would there being any objection to me using the photographs in our magazine "Post Horn", please?
Regards, Christopher Hogan
Hon. Editor
Tom Ireland
In winter he used a horse and sledge to deliver mail to the top of the Dale. Years later they gave him a van.
Only Tom Ireland is known on these set of three photos.
The date of these photos is thought to be between 1930 - 1940.
In November 1933 BLH 485 was one of the first pre-war Morris Minor OMVs in Barney to replace the BSA Motor Cycle Combinations that were introduced in the 1920s. Anybody got any pics of the BSA MCCs in Teesdale ?
[Source: Chris Hogan, Hon. Sec. Post Office Vehicle Club.]
? ?
Hand cutting snow in the 1947 storm in Upper Teesdale.
Postman Tom Ireland with Joshua Beadle, Emily Tallentire
and Reg Wearmouth - taken in 1929 at Forest in Teesdale.
Postman J S [Selwyn] Smedley delivers the mail to Miss Dorothy Redfearn at Forest in Teesdale Post Office in February 1954.
Save driving awards circa late 1950's:
Jack Walton is the J Walton listed on the Roll of Honour.
Albert? Robinson
Ted Elliott
Stan Evans
Jack Porter
Tom Ainsley
Teesy Wright
Tony Raine, Postmaster and Salvation Army Captian.
Tommy Dolan
Photo courteous of Lance Nelson, Mickleton, BARNARD CASTLE.
The Head Postmaster, Darlington, 1955-1963, is Mr A W Sweet.
The Postmaster, Tony Raine, was also known as Tom. In the 1950s he lived with his family in the flat above the post office. (Dear Unknown - any more memories / photos to add of Tom's PO Career?)
BARNARD CASTLE, GALGATE WEST - 1892.
Can you solve the mystery behind the identity of the 'unknown postman'? [Could it be John Blenkinsop?] Please checkout the dedicated page for John ['Jack'] Blenkinsop to compare the pics we have of him. The above pic appeared in the Teesdale Mercury (Jan 2006) - 'Pictures keep history alive' by Naomi Bunting.
If it is 'Jack' then he's taken standing on the corner of Galgate West and John Street.
We were saddened to hear of the death, on Sunday March 11, 2007, of Naomi Bunting. It was her Teesdale Mercury article 'Pictures keep history alive' that led to many successful leads. She will be sadly missed.
There was a Post Office in Galgate (not at the present location) from August 1895 closing in 1933 when the main office moved to 2 - 4 Galgate.
Could this photo be another of our 'unknown postman'? It was taken on the north-west side of Galgate a few years later than that of the 1892 Galgate West. Stoddart's shop also doubled as the Galgate Post Office with a wall box in the left window and a Parcel Post plaque above the door.
Rural Postman leading his horse-drawn cart
(location and Postman unknown - as seen on the British Postal Museum website: www.postalheritage.org.uk -
Our History Through the Post).
MOVING THE MAIL...
Horses to Horsepower
Useful link:-
www.postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/movingthemail
Nominations for best postie can be sent to:-
1st Class People Awards
Royal Mail
1st Floor
148 Old Steet
LONDON
EC1V 9HQ
or emailed to nominations@royalmail.com
A Postman Drivers 'best friend' in a Teesdale Winter.
The photo shows the Durham County Council JCB, from the Bowes depot, digging Stan Chape out of a snow drift.
G.W.A. Thorne heavily ladened with letters and parcels for delivery in, and around, Cotherstone circa 1900.
Post Office Presentation:
This framed photograph by Elijah Yeoman, was presented to Miss Monkhouse on 4th January, 1902. It was given by her Fellow Officers in Barnard Castle Post Office, as a small measure of the esteem in which she was held by them, on her retirement after a service of practically a lifetime. This is a 10"x8" print.
