Today's Object of the Week is a rare collection of postmarks providing an insight into how the present-day Post Office was established.
The early mail service in the United Kingdom catered basically for delivering letters to and from the main post towns or sub-post towns along established road routes.
If you lived outside the boundaries of the city or town in one of the neighbourhoods or outlying villages there was no door-to-door delivery service and any mail had to be collected personally from the main Post Office.
The name of Rowland Hill is familiar for the setting up of the Uniform Penny Post in Great Britain 1840.
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But less well known is the pioneering work of William Dockwra and his partner Robert Murray, who as early as 1680 created an efficient London Penny Post.
They set up in the capital a local post, that used a modest uniform rate of one old penny for delivery of letters and packets weighing up to one pound within the cities of London and Westminster as well as in Southwark.
By 1773 Edinburgh also had its own Penny Post set up and run by Peter Williamson.
These early Penny Posts were very influential in establishing a pattern which would be the forerunner for the Provincial Penny Posts that followed throughout Great Britain and Ireland.
In the act of Parliament of 1765 provision was made for the opportunity to set up local Penny Posts in cities and towns to deliver letters to the surrounding areas and outlying villages.
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Initially only a handful of large cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester actually established local Penny Posts.
Latterly, with few exceptions, all Post Towns had an established Penny Post by 1837.
The Darlington district postal system had a large Penny Post area which covered 12 of the outlying village sub-post offices: Darlington; Shildon; Heighington; Aycliffe; Coatham Mundeville; Gainford; Piercebridge; Aldbrough; Croft; Hurworth; Neasham; Middleton One Row.
The Darlington Penny Post letter pictured above was written from Redworth House on November 8, 1838, by J Smithson and the contents of the letter refer to a meeting to finalise the plan of a tunnel.
It is addressed to Francis Mewburn who was the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s solicitor. His name was crossed out and the letter redirected to a Mr Otley. Richard Otley was the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s surveyor and secretary. The manuscript 1 indicates 1d paid for the Penny Post.
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These Penny Postmarks are not common and very few survive, especially ones from the smaller sub-offices.
Surprisingly the Darlington Penny Post handstamp is scarce and only a very few copies of this handstamp have been recorded.
Aycliffe Penny Post is by far the rarest of the Darlington District Penny Postmarks. The Hurworth and Shildon Penny Post handstamps are seen more often than the others.
The study of Postal History especially the Penny Posts, is a subject of interest not only to postal historians but also to social Hhistorians, as it gives an insight and historical background to an era of postal reform that has established the Post Office we have today.
* The stamps pictured here are part of the collection of a North East philatelist.
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