Post

 

1985: 350 Years of Royal Mail Public Postal Service (Design: Paul Hogarth)

The romance of the Postbus weaving its way through the countryside over bridges and rivers, sadly no longer with us, but what an excellent way to travel.

1990: Europa - Post Office Buildings (Design - P Vahtero)

On to Lapland in 1840 and arriving at the Postal Agency, Nuvvus.  In the background is Nuvvus Ailigas Fell which rises up from the shores of the Tonojoki River near the village. In contrast the other stamp is the large and new Postal Centre building in Turku

2009: Vintage Postal Transport

Pedal powered postmen and their Raleigh bicycles outside what I think is the Palazzo Parisio in Valletta which housed the Maltese GPO between 1886 and 1973 (apart from when it was temporarily moved during WW2)

2003: Post - Rural House Mailbox (Design - Erna de Vries)

And happiness the post has arrived in a pretty mailbox.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Post - See It On A Postcard

Guitar

1969: British Post Office Technology (Design - David Gentleman)

This week Sunday Stamps II has reached the letter G so how could I resist this stamp featuring the Post Office National Giro Bank and their G logo, not only that but for a double G this letter was sent from Glasgow. The cancel "Dial Carefully All figure Telephone Numbers Dial Correctly" refers to the roll out from 1966-1970 of all figure telephone numbers from the previous combination of letters and numbers (the letters signifying the local telephone exchange).  Dialing the wrong number might make one

2016: Mr Men and Little Misses

grumpy.  A celebration of Roger Hargreaves many characters and Mr Grumpy is the grouchiest person in the whole world.  Mr Happy sends Mr Tickle to tickle him if he is mean to someone but perhaps he just needs some music to cheer him up

2018: Popular Culture - The 1960s

maybe a bit of psychedelia or he could learn to play the guitar. Each of the stamps in this Jersey set were designed by different illustrators and the 63p is by Malcolm English (b1946), award winning illustrator and designer  who is famous for his illustrations in the Carnaby Street book.

1965: Musical Instruments

Maybe Mr Grumpy can learn to play this Chadian guitar

2013: Extreme Sports (Design - Bruno Maximus)

or just enjoy playing air guitar.

1983: Music in Sweden (Photo Anders Hanser; Engraver - Czeslaw Slania)

or sing along with ABBA.  I think I will take this option - take it away on your guitar Björn.

Sunday Stamps II prompt of the Letter G - for Great Britain, Giro, Guitar and Grumpy - See It On A Postcard
 

Sunday Stamps - Z

1980: 75th Anniversary of the Post Office Savings Bank

Lets call in to the Umtali Post Office to buy some stamps. Looks like the sort of place one could bump into and chat to people under the veranda. A couple of year's after this stamp was issued the town changed its name from Umtali to Mutare. It has always been a city of change for the original settlement of Old Umtali was moved because of the location of the gold and mineral mining and the so called New Umtali is where the post office was built in about 1895.  It was reported that lions and leopards roamed the streets and indeed a donkey was killed by them outside this post office. Although some colonial buildings remain in Mutare I'm not sure the old post office is one of them because the photograph below is of the Main Post Office today -

The local wildlife makes an appearance on the definitive stamps but I only have one of the set

1980-84: Defintive

of a rhinoceros, pity I don't have the 17c because that featured a zebra. Time to travel on

1990-94: Definitive

to our next destination and take a bus  to the airport

1968-74: Definitive

and we are on the way to Zambia. I wonder if there will be a welcoming dance?

1968-1974: Definitive

Yes there is a vimbuza dancer and from the postmark we must have landed in the country's largest copperbelt town of Kansenshi-Ndola which has an airstrip serviced by Air Zambia.  The Kansenshi Copper Mine is the largest in Africa.  I think I would rather go and see some of the local wildlife

2007: Animals of Zambia (Designer - Gabriel Ellison)

Here is the wonderfully named bat eared fox.  The stamp designer, Gabriel Ellison, was the woman who also helped design Zambia's national flag and coat of arms, was Head of Graphic Arts at the Zambia Ministry of Information and also a prolific designer of Zambian postage stamps which included the definitives from the 1960s to 1980s. She died aged 87 last year and her obituary can be seen here.

An entry the Sunday Stamps II of Z - for Zambia and Zimbabwe - zoom over to See It On A Postcard 

Greenland

The largest island in the world and the card gives the latitude and longitude (also helpfully marking the arctic circle) so perhaps one could plot a route to Greenland.  There will be no trouble finding a post office because that is what all the red dots are around the coast on the postcard.  Nuuk on the south west coast is not only Greenland's capital but the home of the giant Santa Claus Post Box

Image from Wikipedia

where letters to the jolly gentleman are gathered all year round.  Razlan from Hong Kong also called in to the nearby tourist post office and shared his photo on Flickr here  Of course another way to 'visit' Greenland is by post and this is what one Canadian postal enthusiast is doing with post office cover cancels  here.  

Postcards for the Weekend theme - Country Map - navigate to Connections to the World
  

Olympics

The Isle of Man issued four stamps (middle column above) for the Rio games and although I don't usually buy stamp sheets I couldn't resist this one which featured photos from the London Olympic Games.   They even produced a "Good Luck" poster (pdf warning) to the Manx participants of  the cyclist Mark Cavendish and  the shooter Tim Kneale and wished the cyclist Peter Kennaugh a speedy recovery (he had to withdraw from the GB Team after breaking his collarbone in the Tour of California as felt only 70 per cent fit).

What did Royal Mail produce for the event? Zilch. I know its a busy stamp year for anniversaries but they could have at least produced one, or even a stamp booklet.  I will turn instead to multi Gold Medal winner, Laura Trott

2012: London Olympics Gold Medal - Laura Trott

who also won Gold again in Rio so this stamp is still topical

and she is also GB's most successful female Olympian of all time with a total of four Gold Medals, not bad for a girl who began cycling to improve her breathing being born with a collapsed lung and asthma.

I've been lucky enough to visit Olympia so I always like to see a classic view harking back to the original games

which appeared on the 1932 USA stamp for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The famous c450BC Discobolus of Myron statue depicting harmony and balance.  The world globe spins in the background.  The cancel is a bit heavy but it does give me an excuse to show a postcard from the 1950s of

the Post Office of 1902 in Elgin, Illinois which it may have travelled through (found on the Post Marks Collectors site of pictures of US Post Offices). Alas it no longer exists and today one can only sit on a seat in its footmark (see the lament on Elgin Then and Now).

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Olympics - more Games at See It On A Postcard

 

Wings of Time

A photograph of the Menzies Creek Post Office around 1900 was the theme of this stamp from the "200 Years of Australia Post" series issued in 2009.  The post office opened on the 2nd May 1887 which was before the country of Australia had issued its first (and famous), kangaroo on a map stamp in 1913. Before that date State stamps were issued to meet the postal needs of the public. Perhaps about the time of the photograph someone in Menzies Creek would receive postcards from Britain with a stamp like this.

Definitive c1887

I know the postcard rate was a halfpenny at this time, but would that carry it to Australia?  I don't know. 

For a more substantial  package maybe a threepenny stamp would be needed

Definitive c1887

The Menzies Creek Post Office closed in 1980 and if one of their small population (present day numbered 911) was a stamp collector this might have arrived in the post that year.

1980: Centenary of Wild Bird Protection Act

One of the last stamps issued by the post office counter to their customers would have been the 1980 Australian Birds (2nd series) stamps.

Menzies Creek is 42k south east of Melbourne, Victoria and by coincidence this stamp was posted not very far away in Clayton South (21k south east of Melbourne).  The slogan says "Check Address if Incorrect Advise Writer".   By the time of the 8 Feb 1982 cancel both Menzies Creek and Clayton South post offices were closed, guess that must mean a trip into Melbourne.   

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps - theme this week Anything You Like and next week "old or vintage stamps of your country" but as I am away again next week I have slipped a couple of this theme into this week.
 

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Glasgow

 Charing Cross, Glasgow

It is St Andrew's Day today, the patron saint of Scotland, so here is a suitably Scottish card from the early 20th century. The post office still stands here but unfortunately the tram system that was once one of the largest urban systems in Europe is no more. The machine in the road to the left intrigues me, I have no idea what it is. I like to think it is roasting chestnuts although the two women passing the post office seem dressed for summer so possibly not.

The tartan is Dress Stewart, whose clan claim their descent from Banquo, familiar as the character that appears in Shakespeare's Macbeth.  I think Dress Stewart implies this is the one to wear at celebrations, looking good swirling around in a country dance.

Ulverston Post Office

The main post office on County Square. This card is probably from the late 1970s.  Ulverston is a small market town with narrow streets.  This one would be considered quite wide in comparison and leads out onto the main road.  The square has recently had a 'make over' but would still be recognisable from this photo.  The postal vans are kept round the back.

From an older time, possibly the 1920s, when it looks as though there was just one long street.  I think the post office was possibly built in 1875.  The inside has been modernised but is still quite a spacial place.

Weekend Mailbox is hosted by Gemma at Greyscale Territory. Join us by posting anything to do with mail.

 

Postal Service in the First World War

Love this picture of the sorting office used on Lancaster Museum's poster for their current exhibition, with items from the British Postal Museum and the Kings Own Royal Regiment.  It is a fascinating collection of items, we were in the room so long the woman on the desk looked round the corner to check on us. I don't know if she thought we had keeled over in the heat, or perhaps were loading suitcases and looking for a quick getaway.  There were unique items under glass, photographs,  letters and artifacts but also files of cards and letters sent from the front.

One of the items in this folder struck me as particularly poignant with the it short message - "To my Little Girl, Many Happy Returns, Your Dada. France June 23 1915"  So many died I wonder if he returned from the front to see his little girl. One of the things I learnt from this exhibition is that if someone was killed or went missing the letters were returned with that message on them to the sender.

The exhibition also had a full size hut as used by the sorting officer to distribute letter and parcels to the boys on the front line, everything that could be sent was, even neatly wrapped footballs.

Keeping in touch with family, friends and loved ones was as  important then as is is now and the Post Office was a significant part of that link.  When the First World War started in 1914 and it was not "all over by Christmas"  it soon became apparent that not only would there be increased costs , which eventually led to the universal postage rate of a penny being abolished, (and it has been going up regularly ever since!) but there was also a shortage of manpower. Posters went up to recruit men of over 45 and then for the first time they recruited women in numbers, where previously they had only been employed as postmistresses or in rural areas where no male employee could be found.

At first the letters were sorted by the army units in France, but it soon became apparent that it would be better to do it in the UK so they built the Home Depot sorting office in Regent's Park, London.  When completed it was the largest wooden building in the world.  The average time for a letter to be delivered to the western front was 2 days, if it did not have to be censored.  Letters were censored at the port of Le Harve and then later in Boulogne so the enemy could not learn any information from the letter, but they also had a great deal of sucess in catching spies this way.

Hatched cancels like this were used so the letter would not give away positions of ships or troops.

At its peak the Post Office was dealing with 13 million items and by the end of the war owned 22,000 carrier pigeons. What a mind-boggling number of pigeons.