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Looking at an old directory for around 1920, it’s surprising how often post boxes were emptied in those days. This one near St Peter’s Church is emptied 11 times during the day, the first at 5 am, and the last at 11 pm (and twice on Sundays) and it’s typical of all the boxes around the city centre at that time. Imagine trying to get someone to empty a letter box at 11pm these days.

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Today most boxes are emptied once or twice a day. People don’t write personal letters as much as they used to, but the amount of junk mail has massively increased over the years. Were more letters being posted back then, or were the GPO just more efficient ?

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Good question, Cliff Ton. Mail was often delivered the same day it was posted in those days.

I have long suspected that our postman is innumerate as much of the mail coming through my letterbox is addressed to other numbers on the road and vice-versa! It could be laziness but it's certainly annoying because it means other people have to do his job for him!

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I think people did communicate more by mail in those days. My wife collects old postcards, and the messages on them are not all of the 'wish you were here' holiday kind of thing, but often brief notes basically saying things like 'see you tomorrow'.

Obviously today we have email and mobile phones, but up to the 1950s, and even into the 1960s, by no means all households had a phone, and certainly in pre-war days the mail was the quickest way of getting in touch with someone so there was more demand for it.

This is my theory anyway - I've no idea of the actual figures of letters posted!

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We also used to have 2 deliveries a day too
Now I'm lucky if I get one!!(And that's usually between 16.00 and the latest so far has been 19.30!!! (I kid you not)

Long gone are the days when you used to be able to meet the postman on your birthday before you went to school and he had a hand full of cards for you!

(One collection per day round here too, it says 5.00pm and it actually usually is around then.)

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In my view this is a by product of Post Office partial privatisation. Postal deliveries nowadays are a joke esp with the so called first class delivery. More often no quicker than second class delivery.

Many corners have been cut to make massive savings across the board. The latest brainwave to charge postage by size as well as weight leaves many people confused with this new system.

Moral amongst PO employees is at an all time low, ask your postman !

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We were on holiday in Cornwall and it was my hubby's birthday whilst we were there.......He received a card with a 2nd class stamp from Nottingham that was posted the day before, 2 first class stamps took 3 days...........what a joke

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Post #1

 

What !!! - The postman would be demanding obscene amounts of money for doing that much work today......

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My grandad worked all over the country as an electrician with the shop fitting team at Boots. My Mum told me that she would run up to the Midland Station (she lived very close by) and post a letter to her Dad into a post box that was on a bus and this letter was received by him next day, wherever he happened to be.

I have a shoebox full of postcards that grandad sent home, the earliest being around 1906. The messages were very short and sweet, no 'love and kisses' and usually just informing his mother and then later in life his wife of the address where he could be contacted. That address was normally something like Boots the Chemist, High Street, Carlisle. Quite often asking for his parcel to be sent to the address. That parcel would have contained his clean collars!!

Where we live the little metal tags on the boxes always state the next collection is the following day if we attempt to post anytime after midday. I asked our postman about this and he told me they have to empty the boxes at the same time as making deliveries in the mornings. Our only mail delivery each day is between 12 noon and 1 pm.

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Used to wear them shirts Lizzie where you had to attach the collar seperatly with a collar stud,that was in the 60s often wondered if you could still get em,the collars i bought were disposable.

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Classic example of our local postal service, there was knock at our door a little while ago, I shout, "Just a minute" I stagger to the door (Takes me about 30 seconds nowadays) open it to find 'postie' writing out a card, I told him my predicament (4th different postie in six months) and the reason it takes so long, and asked him why he was 'carding me' , he informed me that this letter wouldn't go through our (Specially installed to take large parcel/letters) letterbox!!
it's actual dimensions are 5 inch x 3 inch x 1 inch tall , you could put it through our letter box still holding it in your hand !!

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My grandparents met when they were both students in Cambridge in 1911. My Gran told me there were 8 collections a day and multiple deliveries. My grandfather used to send her a postcard in the morning to invite her out for tea in the same afternoon! Not quite instant messaging but pretty close. However, she also told me that Post Office staff in those days were very poorly paid - presumably why they could afford so many collections and deliveries.

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