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Source
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Postmaster
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Hugh HANSFORD
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Mail from London arrives at
11.00am and is dispatched at 2.00pm
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Pigot & Co.’s directory 1823
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Postmaster
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Hugh HANSFORD
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Letters from all parts arrive at 8.00am and despatched at six
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Pigot & Co.’s directory
1830
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Postmaster
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James READ
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Letters from all parts arrive at 8.00am and despatched at 5.30pm
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Pigot & Co.’s directory
1842
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Postmaster
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James READ
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London letters arrive 8.30am and are dispatched 4.45pm.
Letters from Shaftesbury arrive at 6.45pm and are dispatched at 8.30am
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Post Office Directory 1848
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Postmaster
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James READ
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Letters arrive from London and the
West of England at 9.00am and from Salisbury etc at 5.00pm. Despatched to London
etc via Wincanton at 5.00pm and to Salisbury etc at 9.00am
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Hunt & Co’s Directory 1851
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Postmaster
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James READ
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Letters from all parts arrive from
Wincanton at 8.30am and are despatched at 3.45pm
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Slater’s directory 1852
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Postmaster
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Silvester EDGAR
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London letters arrive 8.30am and are dispatched 4.45pm. Letters from Shaftesbury
arrive at 5.00pm and are dispatched at 8.30am. Money orders granted and paid.
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Post Office Directory 1855
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Postmaster
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Silvester EDGAR
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London letters arrive at 8.00am and are dispatched at 5.00pm. Bags from Shaftesbury and
Blandford arrive at 5.00pm and are dispatched at 8.00am.
Money-orders are granted and paid.
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Harrod & Co 1865
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Post, Money Order & Telegraph Office,
Savings Bank & Government Insurance & Annuity Office
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Postmaster
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Silvester EDGAR
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Letters arrive from London and all parts
are delivered at 7.30am; from London and Salisbury at 12.15pm; box closes at
9.15am for London direct; at 7.20pm for Bath and West of England; at 6.55pm
for Salisbury, London and south coast (and on Sundays at 4.30) and at 10.00pm
for Shaftesbury; on Sundays one delivery by letter carriers at 8.45am.
Savings banks and money order office open
from 9.00am till 6.00pm; telegraph office open from 8.00am till 8.00pm; Sundays, from 8.00am till 10.00am.
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Kelly’s Directory? 1880
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Postmaster
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Silvester EDGAR
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Kelly’s Directory 1885
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Post, Money Order & Telegraph Office,
Savings Bank & Government Insurance & Annuity Office
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Hours of attendance, for sale of stamps,
registration of letters etc from 7.00am to 8.00pm weekdays; Sundays from
8.00am to 10.00am; for money order and savings bank, government annuity and
insurance business, and issue of licences, from 9.00am to 6.00pm; Saturdays,
from 9.00am to 8.00pm; for telegraph business, from 8.00am to 8.00pm;
Sundays, from 8.00am to 10.00am.
Dispatch of letters – Letters etc. can be
posted for – London (night) and all parts, until 7.20pm;
Sundays, 6.10pm; with one additional ½ d. Stamp until 7.25pm; London (day), North of England
, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 9.15am; Salisbury, Southampton and South-west of England, 6.55pm Sundays 4.20pm; Shaftesbury (night) 10.00pm.
Gillingham rural deliveries 7.00am.
Town deliveries include all letters etc
posted in the head office letter box half an hour before the time fixed for
the commencement of the next delivery, including letters from all parts;
first delivery at 7.30am; second delivery (from London, North of England , Scotland and Ireland, arriving at 12.05pm) at
12.15pm; on Sundays the first delivery only is made, commencing at 8.45am.
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Postmaster
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William Samways
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Kelly’s Directory 1889
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Post, Money Order & Telegraph Office,
Savings Bank & Government Insurance & Annuity Office
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From 1st April, 1907, Gillingham, Dorset was reduced to the rank of an Independent Sub-Office and placed,
together with its Sub-Offices, under the control of the postmaster of
Shaftesbury.
The Sub-Offices were:
East Stour, Fifehead Magdalen, Kington Magna, Milton-on-Stour,
Newbury, Stour Provost.
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Post Office Circular. 12 March, 1907. Copy held in Gillingham Museum.
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Vacancy advertised.
Salaried Sub-Postmastership of Gillingham – salary £140 a
year
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Post Office Circular 1769. 21 May 1907.
Copy held in Gillingham Museum.
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Telephone Services
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Opening
by the Post Office of......a Call Office at Shaftesbury. A Telephone Call Office
will be opened at Shaftesbury on the 12th instant. Trunk communication will be afforded by
means of a trunk line from Salisbury at the Shaftesbury charges shewn in the list supplied with this
Circular to all offices concerned. The
trunk fee for each three minutes conversation (day rate) between the London
Area and Shaftesbury will be 1s., and between the
Glasgow Area and Shaftesbury, 4s.6d
The Zone Centre will be Southampton.
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Post Office Circular.
10 November 1908. Copy held in
Gillingham Museum.
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Telephone Services
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SHAFTESBURY AREA including Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury 7 - Hindley ES & Sons,
Engineers, Bourton.
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National Telephone Directory 1910.
Gillingham Museum
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Telephone Services
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SHAFTESBURY AREA including Bourton, Gillingham, Motcombe and
Shaftesbury.
Gillingham 1 – Post Office
Gillingham 2 – Hindley ES & Sons, Engineers, Bourton.
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National Telephone Company Directory
1912. The G.P.O. took over from the N.T.C on 1 January 1912.
Gillingham Museum
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Postmaster
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G Richardson
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Appointed 1937
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Gillingham Museum
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Postmaster
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H C Flashman
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Appointed 1946
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Gillingham Museum
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Air Mail
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Air Mail – with a difference.
Experiments to perfect a system wherby
helicopters are employed to pick up and deliver mail to an exact time-table
at isolated points across the country are being conducted by the Westland
Aircraft Company in Somerset and Dorset. Westland-Sikorsky and
Irvin-Bell helicopters are the machines employed, and the experimental unit
is controlled by Wing Commander R.A.C. Brie.
Dummy mails were carried over the “milk run” – Yeovil, Sherborne, Gillingham, Blandford, Wimborne Minster, Poole, Wareham, Weymouth, Dorchester, Bridport, Lyme Regis back to Yeovil.
A photograph shows Postman Maurice
England of Yeovil standing by his van in a field near Mudford village as a
helicopter prepares to alight to pick up the mails.
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Post Office Magazine article June 1948
Gillingham Museum
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Postmaster
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E F Howell
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Appointed 1951
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Gillingham Museum
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Postmaster
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A E
Boothby
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Appointed 1959
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Gillingham Museum
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Postmaster
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J F Dickens
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Appointed 1968
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Gillingham Museum
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Sub-Postmaster
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G T Rogers
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Appointed 1971
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Gillingham Museum
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