HA7
HA 7
PHOTO POSTCARD VIEW OF HUNTSHAM POST OFFICE (POSTCARD REF. No 17582)
One of a set of postcards once sold individually at the village post office and probably other places.
The postcards are not dated, but are known to have existed in 1929 (see HA21,22), and printed on the reverse: ‘POST CARD Real Photo by CHAPMAN & SON, Publishers, Dawlish’. The numbers on some examples are reference numbers and not dates. This example has a white border.
The building was originally the village blacksmith’s shop, and it is recorded in the Estate Rents of 1876 (HA18), that a Robert Burton rented ‘New Smiths Shop and house’ for £5 per half year. This infers that there was an earlier blacksmith’s shop, and the Tithe map of 1841 (HA12,13,14,15) shows within, approximately, the same location as present, ‘Smiths Shop’. It is assumed that the house referred to, is the present Widgery Cottage. A view exists of the blacksmith’s shop, now the rear of the post office (HA48). Although still named Huntsham Post Office, the post office closed on the decision of the tenant and, then postmaster, Mr. Ken Hall in 2002.
Details found during close examination of HA7 show:
Smaller size post-box would have been opened from inside the post office for initial sorting and local delivery. Present box is larger and is opened from outside the post office by visiting postmen.
The sign above window at left of post office door reads ‘TELEGRAPH OFFICE’ with an arrow pointing to the right, confirmed by Ciss Carpenter to have been white lettering on a dark blue background, enamelled pressed steel, commonly seen at railway stations, etc. before telephones became widespread, and possibly adapted to suit the situation. This must have been a later addition to signs, on the installation of a telephone line to the post office.
Notices over door:
Top: Mostly illegible, but ‘PARCELS POST’ can be seen, it possibly advertises services available from the post office, originally not telegraphs, hence the need for the additional Telegraph Office sign
Centre: ‘HUNTSHAM POST OFFICE’
Bottom (above door): licensing requirement for sale of tobacco.
No telephone call box
Tyre tracks in dusty road surface
Open window above post office door
Old bridge handrails
Motor van with oval rear windows, in Stubbs Lane, on left hand side of picture, with clear bank or neatly trimmed hedge above. See also HA21, 48, 50, 51, 55, 64, 71, 74, 97, 606, 607.
Roy Arnott, 2004
HA7
HA 7
PHOTO POSTCARD VIEW OF HUNTSHAM POST OFFICE (POSTCARD REF. No 17582)
One of a set of postcards once sold individually at the village post office and probably other places.
The postcards are not dated, but are known to have existed in 1929 (see HA21,22), and printed on the reverse: ‘POST CARD Real Photo by CHAPMAN & SON, Publishers, Dawlish’. The numbers on some examples are reference numbers and not dates. This example has a white border.
The building was originally the village blacksmith’s shop, and it is recorded in the Estate Rents of 1876 (HA18), that a Robert Burton rented ‘New Smiths Shop and house’ for £5 per half year. This infers that there was an earlier blacksmith’s shop, and the Tithe map of 1841 (HA12,13,14,15) shows within, approximately, the same location as present, ‘Smiths Shop’. It is assumed that the house referred to, is the present Widgery Cottage. A view exists of the blacksmith’s shop, now the rear of the post office (HA48). Although still named Huntsham Post Office, the post office closed on the decision of the tenant and, then postmaster, Mr. Ken Hall in 2002.
Details found during close examination of HA7 show:
Smaller size post-box would have been opened from inside the post office for initial sorting and local delivery. Present box is larger and is opened from outside the post office by visiting postmen.
The sign above window at left of post office door reads ‘TELEGRAPH OFFICE’ with an arrow pointing to the right, confirmed by Ciss Carpenter to have been white lettering on a dark blue background, enamelled pressed steel, commonly seen at railway stations, etc. before telephones became widespread, and possibly adapted to suit the situation. This must have been a later addition to signs, on the installation of a telephone line to the post office.
Notices over door:
Top: Mostly illegible, but ‘PARCELS POST’ can be seen, it possibly advertises services available from the post office, originally not telegraphs, hence the need for the additional Telegraph Office sign
Centre: ‘HUNTSHAM POST OFFICE’
Bottom (above door): licensing requirement for sale of tobacco.
No telephone call box
Tyre tracks in dusty road surface
Open window above post office door
Old bridge handrails
Motor van with oval rear windows, in Stubbs Lane, on left hand side of picture, with clear bank or neatly trimmed hedge above. See also HA21, 48, 50, 51, 55, 64, 71, 74, 97, 606, 607.
Roy Arnott, 2004