royalmailteesdale

Appeal for info on posties who served in war - details / photos please on the 24 postmen on the WW1 Roll of Honour who served in the Army.

Check out our sister site pics: RoyalMailSwaledale

LAST UPDATE: April 2012 - Matt Bendelow "A remarkable Green Howard" article added...

and RoyalMailWensleydale

- by clicking on their links.

For British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 click here.

RoyalMailDarlington

Discover Teesdale's postal pioneers with RoyalMailTeesdale!

Royal Lancer Thomas Sampson of Demesnes Mill House,
Barnard Castle.
(Please click here to see the Scrapbook Press Clipping of 24/01/1948:- 'Imperial Service Medal for Barney Man'.)

Pte J.T. Kavanagh - 'Jack'

In memory of the five postal workers who lost their lives on the Royal Mail Steamship Titanic please click here for more details.

Harold Robert Lumley 1892 - 1916.

SITE NEWS: Aug 2011 - Details of Teesdale Postal Workers added thanks to Ancestry.co.uk in association with the British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA).

Ed: Important Message from Piczo
From: member services <member_services@piczoinc.com>
To: David Charlesworth <dave.charlesworth@btinternet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 28 March 2012, 21:54
Subject: Re: Images Not Displaying

My Pages

George W A Thorn(e), appointed Cotherstone Rural Postman Aug 1911, died 1930.

"Hi,

Thank you for con-
tacting us.

Unfortunately we are experiencing technical problems with certain older sites which can no longer be fixed. The pictures can no longer be retrieved.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Best regards,

Piczo Member Services"

Private John Walton
for service record click here

Private Thomas Shepherd Postmaster Barningham

More details can be found by clicking here.

Please click here to see the page dedicated to Postman 176
John William Walker of Eggleston.

John Edgar Wearmouth
Newbiggin Postman -
click here for more details.

John William Walker

From the 'Debt of Honour Register' at the Commonwealth War Graves Commision [page] please find details of our 5 Fallen WW1 Postmen: CLICK HERE

For service records of C.J. Knight (M.M.) please click here.

First instituted in March 1916 as an award for distinguished service in the field for Warrant Officers, NCO's and lower ranks. All awards of the MM were announced in the London Gazette, with no citation.

Circa 1938 Top Yard of the Sorting Office, Flatts Road, Barnard Castle
N.B. the hand cranked petrol pump over Tom Ireland's Rt shoulder.

Back row from left to right - P&TO George Stannard BEM (in suit); George Whitfield; Wilf Robinson *PHG; **Herbert 'Ab' Brown & Tom Ireland. The two telegraph boys in front row are Fred Robinson & Ronnie Lowe. [*Note the two 'Crowns' on Wilf's lapels denoting the Postman Higher Grade (PHG). **More photos of 'Ab' below left.]

George served in WW1 as a Naval Telegraphist on HMS Galatea transferring his skills to the GPO as Postal & Telegraph Officer. Therefore, he's not in uniform. From the Post Office Appoinments on Ancestry.co.uk he was appointed SC + T on 2 Oct 1928.

Sorry: Due to Piczo's problem the 'hit counter' hasn't worked since Sept 20, 2010.

15526 hits

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: Teesdale Mercury 03/05/1989 identifies names to your above picture. It quotes: "Some of the Teesdale postal staff before WW2".

With Piczo's 'hit counter' still not working 12 months on it is estimated the total number of hits to be approx. 19,000 [3.5K per annum].

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.

A 10"x8" print of the Elijah Yeoman original, below, can be seen at the Bowes Museum.

In November 1934 BLH 485 was one of the first pre-war Morris Minor OMVs in Barnard Castle to replace the BSA Motor Cycle Combinations that were introduced in the 1920s.

[Source: Chris Hogan, Hon. Sec. Post Office Vehicle Club.]

Anybody got any pics of the BSA MCCs in Teesdale?

Tom Ireland delivering the Middelton-in-Teesdale mail during
the 1930's. (The other postmen are unknown at present.)

In winter time Tom Ireland used a horse-drawn sledge to deliver mail to the top of the Dale. Years later they gave him a van. The date of these three photos is thought to be between 1930 - 1940.

Please click here for Tom Ireland's dedicated webpage

Details of Tom Ireland's mailvan from the Post Office Vehicle Club:

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

? ?

Hand cutting snow in the 1947 storm in Upper Teesdale.

? Can anybody identify the postman, on the left in his wellies and carrying a mailbag over his shoulder ?

Here, the 1920s BSA Motor Cycle Combinations are pictured with the Morris Minor Vans that replaced them in the 1930s.

Roger Redfern, an authority on the Upper Dale, [and grandson of the first Forest in Teesdale postmistress] says more than 100 men could be on duty with shovels to try to dig a way through drifts. They used to heat the shovels and grease them with candle wax to make
digging easier.

They could spend a
day clearing a stretch
of road, only to return
the next morning and
find it filled in again!

In the 1947 storm,
when Roger Redfern
was ten, the snow was
so deep he could walk
on it and touch the
telephone wires.

[The above extract is
taken from Jim
Mctaggart's Dales
Diary of 11/12/10
'Ways have changed, but
snow removal never easy']

More details on Post Office motorcycle combinations can be found by clicking here.

Postman J S [Selwyn] Smedley delivers the mail to Miss Dorothy Redfearn at Forest in Teesdale Post Office - February 1954.

Please contact the author, via either the guestbook or shoutbox, if you have any more photos to contribute. Cheers.

Bd Castle Post Office Safe Driving Awards c 1951: Lf to Rt [???]; [???]; Stan Blenkinsop (M in T); Robert Gregory; Clarrie Alderson; [???]; Jack Walton; Fred Robinson; Ted Elliott; John Alderson (fr); Stan Evans; Jack Porter; Tommy Ainsley; Alan (Teesy) Wright; Tommy Dolan; Tom (Tony) Raine, Postmaster and Salvation Army Captian and Alf Theakstone.

[Jack Walton is the J Walton listed on the Roll of Honour]

Photo courtesy of Lance Nelson of Mickleton.
(Names via FPR 139 e 1 - Parkin Raine - with kind permission of The Fitzhugh Library & Archive)

Alan W Gregory, grandson of Robert Gregory, got in touch to inform us of the true identity of his grandad.
We now need to identify ?Albert? Robinson in the photo.

No. 10: The Head Postmaster, Darlington, 1955-1963, is Mr A W Sweet. The Postmaster, Tony (Tom) Raine. In the 1950's Tom lived with his family in the flat above the post office, 2-4 Galgate, Barnard Castle.

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.

... as it still is in the Dale!

Winter 2009/10

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.

JW Raine Romaldkirk Postman circa 1900

G.W.A. Thorne heavily ladened with letters and parcels for delivery in, and around, Cotherstone circa 1900.

Miss Monkhouse's Retirement 1902 from a Yeoman original.

Cutting from the Teesdale Mercury of 1988. Piece by Jim McTaggart.

Tom

Could number 3, John Blenkinsop, be our mistery Postman (above) taken 10 years earlier on the corner of John Street and Galgate West?

Also, please to see the cutting (left) from the Teesdale Mercury of 1988.

This framed photograph by Elijah Yeoman [taken outside the Post Office at No. 11 The Bank], was presented to Miss Mary 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.

Artist / Maker: Elijah Yeoman (1849-1930)

Place: Barnard Castle

Object Type: photograph

Period: Post Medieval

Broad Date: Post Medieval

Century: 19th - 20th century

Bowes Museum Accession Number: 1998.34.15/ARC

- SATURDAY July 4, 2009

The Post Office
11 The Bank
BARNARD CASTLE
circa 1916

1911 poster in PO window advertising the 3rd Battalion, DLI, Militia Training.

Peter Sutton of the BPMA talks about the Post Office in WW1. Click here to hear his PodCast.

Click here for a guide to WW1 Battlefields and History of the First World War

"Call to the men of Teesdale"

Types of horses in the British Army
(poster top right).

[6]

Another copy of this 1946 group of Barnard Castle Postal Staff (taken outside the Post Office 2 to 4, Galgate) was handed over by John Emerson - Christmas 2009.

The above list of names is taken from the Post Office Newspaper Scrapbook. Click here for more details.

EchoMemories

THURSDAY DECEMBER 16, 2010

*

Ed: Piczo's problem continues...
I'm currently using 'Photobucket' to upload pics. However, this 3rd party provider is proving rather frustrating/impossible to position and re-size posts!
AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Piczo

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