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Memories of Steve J/P 1359 Bristol
Thinking back to my days as a Junior Postman in Bristol in 1968 I recall the ‘reefer’ jackets, one of which I still have, which kept out all but the worst weather when we put on our greatcoats with the leather dispatch rider sleeveless jacket over it to keep the wind out.
Our P.H.G. on dispatch was an ex Navy Petty Officer and I can recall messengers being sent home to get their tie or because they were not wearing their G.P.O. boots!
In Bristol H.P.O. we had pneumatic tubes to and from where Inland & Overseas were received to Telegraph Delivery. One bright spark put an egg up the tube, apparently they heard the egg rattling through the tube as it made its way to finally fall out in the basket in Inland and break as it did!
One of our messengers had a Government Priority Telegram recalling the Captain of one of Her Majesty’s Ships to take his ship to sea, it was his only telegram to deliver and it was his final trip of the day and the last set of deliveries that evening - so an easy one and early off home. However there was no answer (N/A) at the house. The messenger went straight to the garage ; being forgetful he left the telegram in his pouch. Next day when he was playing football his Inspector turned up, called him off the pitch and took him to the garage to retrieve the telegram. Needless to say the offending messenger had a P18 Major Irregularity to answer. The ship went to sea without its Captain!
Sundays in Bristol had its own quirks, some messengers had better bikes than others and if they were not working that Sunday they would make sure that their bike had very little petrol in them and, as the pumps were locked, the reasoning was that no petrol meant no body would be able to use their bike. Those who were on Sunday duty had to ensure thy filled their bikes up on the Saturday when the pumps were open. The way messengers got round this was to upturn their, full, bike and tip the petrol into a 1 gallon petrol flagon they kept in the basement. Then they would put petrol into the ’good’ bike. One Sunday someone was smoking! The petrol caught fire and the nearest fire extinguisher didn’t work, the garage was in the basement of Temple Meads Station Sorting Office. You might imagine the panic… Anyway some quick thinking and the closest bikes were moved clear and a working extinguisher found to put out the fire. Nobody who mattered ever found out!
Thanks Steve for that first part, more to come later!
In Leicester and probably other places N/A was referred to as Not Attempted! Knowing some of the lads it was often spot on!!
In Leicester we had a small number of bikes but on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays the delivery area was greatly extended, so no petrol tricks especially as our P.H.G.’s were very happy to despatch truculent messengers on a 10 mile round trip!
