Post Offices on railway stations

[mailbyrail]

I'm a member of the Railway Philatelic Group and we are researching which railway stations had post offices on them. Many of the offices were in Scotland, but they can be found across the country. In many cases the postmaster was also the station master. Even today there continue to be a small number of post offices located on railway premises such as Ilkley and Strathcarron.
Can any members of the Forum name any stations which had a post office or even do so today?

 

[Controller1701]

The one that comes to mind was Amberley where the erstwhile signalman was also the post master.

Paul

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Cooden Beach (under Connex) , also Boxhill (and Westhumble)

 

[randyrippley]

could be worth looking at Templecombe, my grandmother always claimed her father was a railway employee (presumably the Midland) who was relocated from Gloucester to Templecombe station sometime in the late 1800's to be postmaster there.
She did get awfully confused when she was telling stories though....

 

[mailbyrail]

Thanks for these suggestions which I've looked into.
Amberley Post office wasn't on the station, it was in the village, but Houghton Bridge Post Office was on Amberley station so that's a great example. The PO closed 31 August 1968.
The mention of Cooden Beach seems to ring bells of reading about the Post Office in one of the railway magazines at the time but I can't track down the details. I can't find a post office listed with the name Cooden Beach after 1931 which doesn't help.
Templecombe Post office was fairly close to the station but doesn't ever seem to have been located on the station or been the direct responsibility of the station master or other railway staff.
I'm still trying to find out more on Box Hill and Westhumble (earlier Box Hill and Burford Bridge) station.

 

[delt1c]

Any station where a TPO stopped potentially had a Post Office as they had a slot to post letters in

 

[Eyersey468]

Sledmere/Fimber station on the old Malton to Driffield line had a Post Office there.

 

[mailbyrail]

Thanks for Sledmere & Fimber station, I'd not got details of that one. There were several NER stations with POs around that area.
Sledmere village had its own PO but Fimber PO was on the station until the late 1940s from what I can tell.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Martin Mill Station in Kent was well known as having a combined booking office and Post Office.

 

[trainmania100]

Frant has a post box, but not a post office I don't think

 

[Eyersey468]

Thanks for Sledmere & Fimber station, I'd not got details of that one. There were several NER stations with POs around that area.
Sledmere village had its own PO but Fimber PO was on the station until the late 1940s from what I can tell.

I'm involved with the group that is working to reopen part of the line as a heritage line, if you're interested I can see if we have anything in our archives about the Post Office on the station.

 

[mailbyrail]

Dr Whoo
Thanks for Martin Mill - unusually this Post Office was known as 'Martin Mill Station' even though there was no other PO known simply as Martin Mill Most post offices on stations were only called after the name of the village with no clue that they were on a station.
Trainmania100
My first reaction was that Frant post office was not at the station - it wasn't - but then digging deeper, it turns out Bell's Yew Green Post Office was located on Frant station, certainly in the 1920s. Certainly one I would never have guessed!
Eyersey468
In addition to Fimber Post Office on Sledmere & Fimber station, Wharram station, a couple of stops away, also had a post office.
I'd be grateful if you have photos of either which I can reproduce in our Society Journal.

 

[Eyersey468]

Dr Whoo
Thanks for Martin Mill - unusually this Post Office was known as 'Martin Mill Station' even though there was no other PO known simply as Martin Mill Most post offices on stations were only called after the name of the village with no clue that they were on a station.
Trainmania100
My first reaction was that Frant post office was not at the station - it wasn't - but then digging deeper, it turns out Bell's Yew Green Post Office was located on Frant station, certainly in the 1920s. Certainly one I would never have guessed!
Eyersey468
In addition to Fimber Post Office on Sledmere & Fimber station, Wharram station, a couple of stops away, also had a post office.
I'd be grateful if you have photos of either which I can reproduce in our Society Journal.

I will find out for you.

Edited to add, I have PM'd our archivist and will let you know what he says.

 

[Foxcote]

Millers Dale for Tideswell; the junction for Buxton on the Derby - Manchester line, had Post Office when I worked on the line

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for these suggestions which I've looked into.
Amberley Post office wasn't on the station, it was in the village, but Houghton Bridge Post Office was on Amberley station so that's a great example. The PO closed 31 August 1968.
The mention of Cooden Beach seems to ring bells of reading about the Post Office in one of the railway magazines at the time but I can't track down the details. I can't find a post office listed with the name Cooden Beach after 1931 which doesn't help.
Templecombe Post office was fairly close to the station but doesn't ever seem to have been located on the station or been the direct responsibility of the station master or other railway staff.
I'm still trying to find out more on Box Hill and Westhumble (earlier Box Hill and Burford Bridge) station.

I'm assuming the ref to Cooden Beach relates to Connex South Central's initiative to diversify booking office space into wider retail in a number of locations. Not sure how this took off or how long it lasted and if at that location it included full post office facilities or simply some sort of 'post shop' type thing. Afraid I never got off there despite regularly travelling to Bexhill and Hastings at that time.

Link of minor relevance
https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/passenger-in-brief-6.html

 

[mailbyrail]

I think Millers Dale Post Office moved to the station sometime in the interwar years and stayed there until the station closed. I've seen a photo of the booking hall/post office in a Derbyshire book somewhere but don't have the details. I think I might have an idea where to look, I've a feeling it's in a Derbyshire local village book, nothing to do with railways. Interestingly, Bill Hudson made no reference to the Post Office in his book on the line from Ambergate to Chinley 'Through Limestone Hills'.

I do vaguely remember the Cooden Beach announcement but living in Bedford then it wasn't somewhere I could drop in and I never heard anything else about it. At least the date of the Railway Gazette article gives a clue which I can try to explore further

 

[RichJF]

Redhill had a TPO/post office bay until fairly recently but the mail facility/bridge over the tracks have both been out of post action for many years.
Vaguely recall as a youngster seeing a 47/RES GUVs in the bay in the late 90s.
The RH postcode is massive & there is still a large postal presence in the area.

Think Tonbridge may have had one too until the postal siding was built further down the line in the 90s too

 

[mailbyrail]

Post Office mails were carried by train from November 1830 on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. By 1837 the mail was carried from Liverpool to Birmingham by train and on to London by road taking 'just' 31.5 hours for the full journey. The first railway Travelling Post Office (TPO) ran in 1838 using a converted horse box to carry and sort mail.
Post Office facilities were set up on principal stations to sort mail but neither the TPOs nor the Station Offices provided post office counter services such as selling stamps or sending telegrams.
Railway companies set up their own telegraph networks and a multitude of private telegraph companies provided services. Soon the Post Office nationalised the telegraph service but railway stations continued to provide public telegraph services linking into the Post Office service. British Rail continued to offer the telegraph service from an ever reducing number of stations almost until it ended its own last internal telegraph circuit in 1976, just six years before the Post Office stopped the public telegram service entirely.
Post Offices providing counter services had existed around the country since well before the coming of the railway but with the expansion of trade and communications as letter post was reduced to 1d and railways spread further into more remote parts of the country, some railway stations combined post office duties (and also fertiliser and animal feed agencies and other ancilliary services) with running trains.
The post office had the right to carry mail on any train and it was a familiar sight to see mail bags on most country stations but the TPO was less visible as most of them ran at night. TPO staff were all employed by the post office and only the train guard and footplate crew were railwaymen.
The various stations up and down the country that were post offices as well were however operated by railwaymen who served both roles - Postmaster and Station Master receiving payment from both employers. It is this little documented dual function that I'm exploring. Many of the combined post offices and stations closed in the 1960s but some continued to provide both roles. Rannoch Station only ceased to be a Post Office operated in the railway booking office in 1999. Of course Rannoch station is now fully unstaffed.
So far we've identified about 140 stations which were also post offices. Some of these came from suggestions to the initial Forum request for which many thanks. Most were in Scotland but the LNER had several and others ranged from Cumberland to Kent. There are none on the list on the GER, GWR, LSWR. No railway histories seem to include details of Post Offices on stations, however comprehensive they are on other matters.
There's still more to track down!