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SearchA draft of a page just completed for a Railway Letter Mail cover is below. The "Immediate" on my cover appears to be in a different ink and handwriting than other manuscript on the cover. Thinking maybe it was applied at London EC office which was .1 mile from address, I discovered that there was a Special Delivery class (3) listed in the 1896 PO Guide (page17-18) that stated:
"3. By Special Delivery in advance of the ordinary Mail, By this means any person may make arrangement with the Local Postmaster to secure the immediate delivery of his own correspondence on its arrival."
On page 23 of the same Guide it states that the fees were 3d a mail for a single packet and 1d for every 10 or less additional packets.
Am I wrong?
1894 Request for Special Delivery at Local Post Office
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Richard Frajola
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2021 2:39 pm
Re: 1894 Request for Special Delivery at Local Post Office
I'm no handwriting expert, but to me it looks as if that "Immediate" is in the same hand as the address? Not too many letters common to both, unfortunately, but the vowels and "d" look very similar, and neither "t" has a cross-stroke.
You do see "Immediate" written every now and again on railway letters IIRC -- the implication being that the sender wanted it to be delivered immediately by express messenger on arrival (as opposed to being put in the ordinary post or collected from the station), or alternatively taken immediately from the receiving post office to the station by express messenger. (Not sure the latter would apply here -- Narberth isn't that big, so I would think it would be just as easy for the sender to take it directly to the station.)
Identifying an "advance delivery at addressee's request" item is tricky, because they don't usually seem to have been marked in any way. It was kind of a weird service because (as I read the PO Guide) it would have been applicable to ordinary mail of any kind received at the delivery office, not necessarily express items. The only ones I've seen that I'm confident were delivered by this service are as attached -- some STO envelopes pre-printed for the service by the addressee, apparently to get orders early (I've seen about half a dozen of those maybe).
All those railway transfer handstamps are rather rare btw -- nice item!
You do see "Immediate" written every now and again on railway letters IIRC -- the implication being that the sender wanted it to be delivered immediately by express messenger on arrival (as opposed to being put in the ordinary post or collected from the station), or alternatively taken immediately from the receiving post office to the station by express messenger. (Not sure the latter would apply here -- Narberth isn't that big, so I would think it would be just as easy for the sender to take it directly to the station.)
Identifying an "advance delivery at addressee's request" item is tricky, because they don't usually seem to have been marked in any way. It was kind of a weird service because (as I read the PO Guide) it would have been applicable to ordinary mail of any kind received at the delivery office, not necessarily express items. The only ones I've seen that I'm confident were delivered by this service are as attached -- some STO envelopes pre-printed for the service by the addressee, apparently to get orders early (I've seen about half a dozen of those maybe).
All those railway transfer handstamps are rather rare btw -- nice item!
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juliantweed
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 1:14 pm
Re: 1894 Request for Special Delivery at Local Post Office
Hello Richard
a nice cover but I don't think you are correct to suggest it was delivered in London at the request of the recipient.
It looks to me too as though the "Immediate" is in the same hand as the address, albeit smaller.
As the adhesive was not cancelled until it reached the Paddington branch office, I would say that the sender delivered it by hand to Narberth Station from where it was taken on to London as a Railway Letter.
From Paddington it would have been taken through the ordinary mails to the EC delivery office and would have found its way to the addressee by one of the several daily deliveries made to addresses in the City at the time. I can't see that there is any evidence to suggest that it was delivered by express messenger at any stage on its way to Gracechurch Street.
I agree with Admin that the only realistic hope of identifying items which were delivered under the service you mention is the very few cases where special envelopes were used such as the Spiers & Ponds example he show.
a nice cover but I don't think you are correct to suggest it was delivered in London at the request of the recipient.
It looks to me too as though the "Immediate" is in the same hand as the address, albeit smaller.
As the adhesive was not cancelled until it reached the Paddington branch office, I would say that the sender delivered it by hand to Narberth Station from where it was taken on to London as a Railway Letter.
From Paddington it would have been taken through the ordinary mails to the EC delivery office and would have found its way to the addressee by one of the several daily deliveries made to addresses in the City at the time. I can't see that there is any evidence to suggest that it was delivered by express messenger at any stage on its way to Gracechurch Street.
I agree with Admin that the only realistic hope of identifying items which were delivered under the service you mention is the very few cases where special envelopes were used such as the Spiers & Ponds example he show.