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Erdington postmen heroes remembered

It is annoying that for that period the only Birmingham newspaper in the archives is the Despatch. Ifn you look at that for the 3 days after the event, a search for just Erdington gives 2 "hits", needless to say neither concerning this.
 
There was another Post Office nit sure if the article is siggesting it was somewhere at the top of Mason Road, near where the workhouse was sited (now the library). But it certainly makes it clear tbis post 9ffice was on the same side of tge road. Midland Bank also mentioned (now HSBC) is still there. This article definitely suggests this side of High Street, not the side we've so far been looking at. Maybe it was temporarily on this side of the road until it moved to Sutton New Road ?

Screenshot_20250506_145820_Chrome.jpg

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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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And for info, there's a PO (closer to Six Ways) mentioned in High Street on the thread link below. (This might, in fact, be the same PO as mentioned in post #545 as it would be that same side of the road).

This one was a combined post office and lending library service. In a nutshell, what I'm saying is we may have the wrong PO where the WW1 victims had been employed. Worth exploring I think.

mikejee

Post in thread 'Post Office lending library Erdington'

Viv
It would have been a circulating library for which people paid to borrow books. I can remember them in boot and WH Smiths in the 1950s. They were often associated with booksellers or similar. This is almost certainly associated with a stationers (which is similar). The 1904 Kellys lists no 252 High st Erdington (see name when looking closely at photo), as John Barrett ,grocer, near the end of the street and 6 shops away from the Baptist chapel (which would be on the far right.) No 246 is Alfred Rodway, Tailor (Rodway in photo) and two doors up from there (where Library sign is) is...
  • Appreciate
 
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Further info (mostly from the Warwickshire Herald or Harborne Herald) that I've come across about the Erdington Post Office, which could help to confirm/eliminate possible locations:

Mr S Taylor ran the Post Office in Erdington in the 1880s/90s. He was very active in Erdington, serving on various local civic committees.

The Post Office was situated two doors away from Mr W Pearson, the Chemist, in 1899.

In 1897, a watchmaker and silversmith named B. Runge had premises next door to the Post Office, Erdington

In 1889 and 1890, Erdington Post Office also had a lending library

In 1866, Mr E Sprawson, military haircutter, had premises located opposite the Post Office in Erdington.
 
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thanks mike that all ties in with my photo post 536 in which john henry hodge is still there next to the post office

lyn
 
pjmburns said:
Isn't it more likely the postmen were based at the sorting office. So my question is - was that building the sorting office as well?
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it could have been jan... looking at mikes map the building seemed to go back quite a way..maybe a counter post office at the front and sorting office at the back...only a guess though

lyn
 
Was there a separate sorting office in Erdington? There were buildings on the map behind frontage which could have been used for an initial sorting of local mail, before transport to Central Birmingham. I have seen no sorting office in the area , At this time it was relatively rural compared to the 1930s, and that expansion presumably prompted the building of the much larger structure in the 1930s
 
mikejee said:
Was there a separate sorting office in Erdington? There were buildings on the map behind frontage which could have been used for an initial sorting of local mail, before transport to Central Birmingham. I have seen no sorting office in the area , At this time it was relatively rural compared to the 1930s, and that expansion presumably prompted the building of the much larger structure in the 1930s
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thats what i was wondering in my last post mike...possible the back was used as a sorting office..all guess work though

lyn
 
looking at mikes map the old swan pub was on the corner at wilton road and the post office 5 buildings down opposite the green..looking at todays view the new swan pub is in the same place with wilton road on the left so the post office would have been where the grey borshcn building is...i think

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Was trying see if I could find out how centralised sorting was at the turn of the century, Was not successful, but did discover that in 1903 deliveries in Birmingham started at 7.00am and finished at 6.30 pm . In that period there were 6 deliveries each day!
 
Don't know if this helps as I don't know how the PO structure worked, but Erdington was a Sub-Post Office. So would the High Street PO on Erdington Green have actually had a sorting office before the Sutton New Road PO was built ? Or would sorting of mail have been carried out elsewhere?

Found this in a search:

  • Sub-Post Offices:
    These smaller offices, often part of a shop or other business, primarily offered services like selling stamps, receiving and delivering mail, and offering financial services. They were not equipped for sorting mail in the same way as HPOs.

In the 1900s .........sub-post offices handled the distribution and collection of mail from their local area. Mail was then sent to larger sorting offices for distribution.
 
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