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Spring 2018 Newsetter

DAYBROOK STATION

CHRIS TENNANT

The recent acquisition of a Great Northern Railway parcel stamp issued at Daybrook Station (the first I have seen in in 50 years) prompted some research into a forgotten but important Nottingham station.

The name of the area known as Daybrook takes its name from the Day Brook, which ran from a site near to Jubilee Road, Daybrook, along Valley Road to join the River Leen, Basford. Some sections of the brook are still visible. The railway station was opened in 1876 as part of the Great Northern Railway’s Derbyshire and Staffordshire extension, the line running from Netherfield to Gedling and through Mapperley Tunnel to Daybrook. From there to Basford and Bulwell (opened as Basford for Dob Park and Bulwell) and on to Pinxton with later progress to Derby (Friar Gate) and on to the Staffordshire coal fields.

The station was initially named Bestwood and Arnold but this was changed within a month to Daybrook for Bestwood and before the end of the year to Daybrook. (The GNR had presumably printed the stamps before the latest name change.)

Daybrook Station also served as one end of the Nottingham Suburban Railway, which opened in 1889. It was privately owned but operated by the GNR from the outset, running from Trent Lane via stations at Thorneywood, St. Ann’s Well and Sherwood to Daybrook.

After the arrival of the electric tram in Nottingham, passenger traffic on the Suburban was greatly reduced and as a wartime measure, the three intermediate stations were closed in 1916. Passenger traffic continued to and from Daybrook until 1931 (now as part of the London and North Eastern Railway) when the Leen Valley Line (opened in 1881 to carry coal from Bestwood Colliery and passengers from Newstead in 1882) was closed. The line through Daybrook was closed to passengers in 1960 after subsidence in the Mapperley tunnel but remained open for goods until final closure in 1964.

THE POST OFFICE MUSEUM. PART 2: MOVING THE MAIL

BRIAN CLAYTON AND ALAN SQUIRES

Once the mail had been placed in the pillar box, it had to be collected and sent to a sorting office. Here it was sorted according to its destination. Moving the mail around the country was done in a variety of ways., Figs 1 and 2 show horse-drawn coaches which would be pulled by 4-6 horses depending on distance to be travelled.

Though there was room for paying passengers inside, the state of the roads would make for a very uncomfortable ride. This was the fastest way of getting mail around the country in the 1700s and 1800s. As there would be need to change horses along the way, there were staging posts set up for the purpose. These were often inns which had a stable attached. Horses would be readied for the incoming mail-coach and a quick ‘pit stop’ would allow for a speedy delivery of the mail. As the railway grew, it became quicker to transfer mail on the ever-expanding rail system. Special coaches were built to act as travelling post offices and sorting offices. This meant the mail could be processed during the journey and in some cases dropped off on route.

In some rural areas, taking the mail from the railway station to the village or town post office would have been done by either pony and trap or bicycle (fig.5). Anything from a motor van to a motorcycle could be used to speed up the mail in this way. (figs 6 and 7)

In London, there were a number of problems developing as the capital grew in size and population. In the last century, traffic density on the roads meant it could take many hours to complete a mail run by post office van. To overcome this problem, the PO had its own private underground rail system. This ran 6½ miles across London. It started in the 1920s and ran for over 75years until closing in 2003. It delivered mail far quicker than any road vehicle could in the overcrowded streets of London. Figure 8 shows the carriage that transported the mailbags and figure 9 is a view of the electric engines that did the work. These were unmanned and were controlled from a central console. They could be stopped at any of the underground stations they served on their route. Once they came to a stop, post office workers could load and download mailbags and the tiny train would be off to complete its journey.

Our visit to the Post Office Museum was both interesting and informative. It also brought back some interesting memories of local post being collected and delivered. The journey on the underground system was highlighted by several stops. At these stops, there was a projected video display showing how the system worked. Our journey was over too soon, but we were not travelling in luxury as the coaches had been built to carry us on a system not designed for moving humans but for moving mail. (Figure 10).

We can thoroughly recommend a visit to the museum. It is well laid out and there is far more to see than the few photographs in these two articles show. Some of the exhibits are interactive and allow you to ‘play’ with various artefacts to help you understand their use.

Postscrpt. I found this postcard. The Insert states each of the trains in service had covered at least 1,250,000 miles.(S.P).

LEEWARD ISLANDS, MARITIME MARKS COLLECTION OF THE LATE KEN BENHAM

IAN JAKES

Ken Benham’s Leeward Islands collection contained not only postage stamps and varieties, postmarks and postal stationery, but also every other conceivable mark to be found on British West Indian envelopes, including an extensive maritime mail collection. This article relates to circular marks to be found on British West Indies stamps and are shown in fig. 1 below. This page formed part of Ken’s St. Kitts postmark collection. However, these marks are maritime marks.

The ‘Leeward Islands Notes for Philatelists, Second Edition’ by M.N.Oliver, FRPSL (‘Oliver’) states that a number of single stamps exist showing the ‘four even circles’ mark of which Ken had two. Oliver states that this mark is known applied on cover at Costa Rica in 1900 and also recorded used in Panama. Oliver believes that this or a similar cancel was used at a regular port of arrival from Leeward Islands, most probably St Thomas.

The ‘six circle’ cancel on a Kitts-Nevis halfpenny grey-green (SG 12) affixed to a postcard which also includes a date-stamp DE 25 09. The postcard is addressed to Mrs. I.D. Harper, Friar Hall, Antigua. Mrs Harper was one of the Harper family of philatelists who arranged for unusual and rare philatelic material to be sent to them. The most well-known of these philatelists is Miss Bessie Harper, who was the librarian at St. Johns, Antigua from circa 1930. Oliver states that the ‘six circle’ cancel was probably a Royal Navy ship cancel when no regular mail service was available. The ‘five circle’ cancel mark cancelling the Leeward Islands 2d grey first issued in 1911 (SG39) is unknown to Oliver.

Fig 2 (above) shows a ‘Lady Hawkins’ maritime mark in use between April 1931 and February 1938 .This maritime mark is in a style which is more familiar to philatelists

Postscript to the above from Ian Jakes, (March 2018). I have just received an e-mail from Michael Oliver about the concentric maritime marks. He tells me that 3,4,5, and 6 concentric maritime marks are now known to have been used in British West Indies between 1900- 1920. The 4-ring concentric is also known cancelling Gambia stamps on cover to Germany via Liverpool dated 1900. (S.P).

A PHILATELIC CONUNDRUM

SANDRA POOLE

I recently received this cover from a friend in Denmark, because he was interested in the Savings stamp replacing the regular one. The postage has actually been paid through the use of a franking machine: ‘POSTAGE PAID’ and ‘10’ can be seen down the stamp in red. ‘The date- 9 IV 76- and LONDON’ can be seen in the red ‘cds’. The cachet shows that the letter originated in the foreign section of a London business that the postcode identifies as most likely being Royal Mail Wholesale, which deals in bulk mail. So what’s the problem?

Well, this hardly looks like an item of bulk mail. It obviously hasn’t been sent to Denmark from London as the sender’s address on the back is a flat in Birmingham and the c.d.s proves that the letter was sent from there on 9 April 1976, the same date that it was purportedly sent from London! The use of the savings stamp probably indicates that the sender, addressee or both had a philatelic interest. The best solution I have come up with is that the letter originated from the London address, the date was incorrect or changed at source by a friend who worked there and then sent in a separate envelope to the sender living or staying in Birmingham where it collected a genuine Birmingham postmark when posted to the addressee. in Denmark.

Or, a friend from RM Wholesale, on his or her way to Birmingham on that day could have dropped it off at the sender’s address- not a long journey- but it seems unlikely. Has anyone a better solution?

Discussion (Added August 2018): 1.The red cds is over the savings stamp so that came first. It seems that the letter got paid in London but was put in a box after getting home in Birmingham. The sender had a day in London and met a friend who had a red machine. (D.H.) I agreed that the sender could have spent the day in London and met a friend but the friend would have had to work at RM Wholesale for the letter to receive the ‘Foreign Section London’ cachet. I also asked if one could assume that the addressee was a philatelist.(S.P) 2. The ‘sender’ of the letter could have been a foreigner who had obtained the 10p savings stamp thinking that it was also accepted for postage. The London friend realised that it was not for postage and applied the red stamp, but the savings stamp was already stuck down, so was left in place. Then the addressee is not (a philatelist) wanting a Cinderella stamp. (D.H.) Recently, I came across another item (9 May 1975) and I think it is quite feasible that the Post Office would have accepted National Savings Stamps for postage in 1976. They continued until later that year and can still be redeemed from NS & I, Glasgow at face value (S.P.).

MISCELLANY

SANDRA POOLE

Loo Stamp. In the 2007/8 Winter Newsletter, Minou Button wrote a delightful article about the loos in Kawakawa, New Zealand and featured a stamp showing a similar one to those she had already seen. It was designed by the same man who had designed and built them. I was reminded of that when I saw this Danish Poster stamp, probably from the 1920s, on Ebay.

Tierra del Fuelgo. I was sorting through some stamps when I noticed that the following one was a view of Tierra del Fuego. You will probably remember that Douglas Harvey wrote in the Spring 2014 Newsletter about the one stamp issued there, the postal value of which was expressed in gold rather than centavos. My stamp prompted me to find out a bit more about its geography. The eastern part of the Island belongs to Argentina, the western to Chile. The capital is Ushuaia, which is generally considered to be the southernmost city in the world. As can be seen from the stamp, it is situated in a wide bay on the southern coast and is backed by the Martial range of mountains in the North.

Royal Birth (Prince Louis). A Royal mail slogan commemorating the birth of Prince Louis on 23 April 2018.

Royal Philatelic Society. The RPSL has purchased new London premises on Abchurch St, just a few minutes away from Bank and Cannon St. stations. They are still around £2,000,000 short of a full refurbishment, but still hope to move in June 2019.

Cancellations. We complain about pen cancels, but how about this for effective obliteration? Evanesco is a vanishing spell from the story of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It’s certainly made most of this stamp vanish!