THIS postman looks a weary fellow as, crop in hand, he faces into the weather with his snood wrapped around his ears for warmth. He’s trying to cajole his reluctant donkey to tread once more the roads from Darlington to Hurworth to deliver the mail.
Slung over his shoulder is his satchel bearing the letters, and behind him is a church with a tall, slender spire that could easily be St Cuthbert’s, in Darlington.
Quite why he should look so weary and wrapped up when there are summer leaves on the trees and the sky is blue – it looks pretty warm for Darlo – is a mystery that may be explained by the length of the journey he has undertaken.
William Carr's 1837 painting of the Darlington & Hurworth postman
Although in the bottom left hand corner of the painting, the unnamed artist has written “Darlington & Hurworth postman, 1837”, the postie has recently been found in antiques shop more than 300 miles away on the south coast.
“I uncovered it in Arundel, near Brighton, and as soon as I saw it, I had to have it and bring him home,” says William Carr, an antiques dealer based in Darlington who specialises in antique and decorative chairs and interiors, as his company name, Chairfinder, suggests. “It is oil on canvas, and it is in a frame, about 40cms square.
“I would love to get him back to his family, if there are any still in the area.”
So who is he?
William’s research has found that the Darlington postmaster in 1837 was Richard Wilson. He held a position that dated back to 1591, when George Bainbridge was the first known Darlington postmaster. From 1606 to the dawn of the penny post in 1841, the postmaster was based in the Post House on the corner of Post House Wynd and High Row, where Virgin Money is today. He was in charge of collecting letters, forwarding to their destination and ensuring that the “running post”, established between London and Edinburgh in 1635, always had fresh horses as it whizzed through Darlington.
READ MORE: THE FULL POSTAL HISTORY OF DARLINGTON
But does this look like the postmaster, or one of his postmen?
In fact, could it be Henry Nesbitt, better known as “Harry Boots”, who was a well known postman from this era? Just nine years after the painting was dated, on November 26, 1846, Harry was carrying the night mail bags down from Bank Top station.
Rather than cross the River Skerne on the Stonebridge, Harry chose to use “a narrow and dangerous passage” called Mill Bank which crossed the river at the edge of the Mill Pot – the large pond which powered the machines in Peases’ Mill, where the Sports Direct multi-storey car park is today.
With the river in flood, and the Mill Bank without railings, in the dark November night, Harry and his horse and cart slipped into the Mill Pot.
“The cart and horse were found, but poor Harry was not discovered till the morning of the 27th, the body having been moving about in the Mill Pot the whole of the previous day as the place where it was found had been dragged previously without success,” wrote William Longstaffe in his 1854 history of Darlington.
“The mailbags were found in a tolerable condition by Mr Gent, of Polam, a considerable distance from the stream. Harry Boots was buried with much respect and is commemorated by a tombstone in the churchyard.”
Perhaps the artist who produced the painting knew that St Cuthbert’s Church would be Harry’s final resting place after years of delivering the mail.
A print of "the Letter Carrier" which seems to have been made from William's picture. Courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies
In its day, the painting must have been quite popular as in the local studies collection in Darlington library is a print, entitled “The Letter Carrier”, that seems to have been made from it. On the print, the signpost has been made more prominent and it now points to “Hurworth 3 miles”.
If our mailman and his donkey ever reached Hurworth, they would have had to deliver the letters by themselves as we don’t think a post office was established there until the 1880s. It remained on the north side of the village green until the 1970s.
A superb 1890s photograph of Hurworth Post Office on the village green. The ladies on the left are loading a trunk onto the cart, which has a coat of arms on the side – it must have belonged to one of the members of the Hurworth gentry. The uniformed postman sits on the cart with a bag of letters at his feet. On the bag is printed the words: "Hurworth to Darlington”
Above: Hurworth post office's original location on the green is now a private house
Below: The post office in the early 1970s in another location on Hurworth green
The post office William’s fabulous painting cost him well into four figures and it is now looking for a permanent posting. William runs Chairfinder, which he set up in January 2022 after being a sports science teacher at Seaham, from Raydaleside in Stanhope Road South. His website is chairfinder.co.uk; his Instagram feed, chairfinderuk, has all of his latest discoveries on it, or he can be contacted on 07958-023028.
And if you can tell us anymore about any aspect of the painting, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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