The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-12-26 00:00:00

OPENING OF THE NEW POST OFFICE.

Oil Monday the new, handsome, and commodious
post offiLe was opened for the transaction ea th-
p ,stal and telegraph business. The build:ng is
very centrally situated, being about the middle of
Upper High Street, and in this respect, as in oPiers,
contrasts very favourably with the old Post Office,
which was near to the bottom of Lower High St.,
aed too near to an extreme end of the town. The
trontage, which is in ths Italian Renaisiance styl ,
is conieructed of red bricks with terracotta draft -
siegs, and has a very attrae tlve appeal a ace. 'lh
f out offiaa where the ordinary public business wil•
be tansacted is a very commodious and well fitt3c
up room, loft. by 22ft., having a polished mahog-
arl counter extending its entire length. At the
back of this is the sorting raom, 30ft. by 10ft .
Ugh ed from the top as well as from side windows,
and having evei y necessary appliance for enabling
the work of the sorters and others to be carried ou
with comfort, precision, and despatch. There is
also a retiring room on the ground floor, left, by
12ft , for the post carriers. The instrume, t room
of the telegraphic department, which is on the firs.
floor upstairs, is:l9lt. by 221 t. In addition to this
there are the Postmaster's office, the female
retiring room, the curator's room, &c., &c. The
place has been erected from the designs of Mr.
Robinson, architect, and the work has been carried
out by Messrs. IV, North and B. Burford, in the
moet satisfactory manner. It was commence,l in
Apt il this year. The building has been leased from
the owner by the Post Office authoriti,e4 and is
great improvement OR the old building occupied
fur So many years by Mrs. Handley.
I Mr. NV Batt (the Chairman of the Commis-
siouers), the local Commis,iouers, Town Clerk, ann
I other gentlemen assembled upon the premises at
hal-past one, and after having gone over the place
and ear-fully inspected the arrangements, a meet
I ing was held in the front office, over which Mr. W.
Platt presided. Ile called upon Mr. Knight, the
I postnia,ter, to make a statement.
1 Mr. Knight said he had been asked to give them
a little inform Alen regarding the growth of poste7
business in the town, !inl he would confine hitnsee
to the three years in which he had been conleete .
with the office. The number of letters delivered ii
the town three years ago was 31,352 weekly, and
the last account taken—a recent one—showed te,
number was now 35,045, so that there had been
steady increase of abut 1,000 a year in the weekl;
average. Of parcels the average number poster.
weekly was at first 381, and the delivery 399; bu
there were 491 delivered weekly and 421 postee
weekly. Three years ago the number of telegram,
of all kinds was 35 590 for the year, and before the
reduction in the tariff they had increased to 42,15
That was a very large increase, and more than half
of these telegrams represented two tranes Akins. ac
they were retransmitted messages, received from
one office to be sent on again to another. The in-
crease since the reduction of the tariff was about
10 per cent, (Hear, hear.) That was a larger lu-
cre tse, he believed, than the average for the king.
dour generally. Three years ago there were no
branch offices or receiving offices in the town, whil,
now there were three, and the number of wa 1
lotter-boxes had been increased from twelve to
twenty. There were 76 mail bags made up daily
three years ago, and now there were 102. During
the last three years the additional accommodation
of a third delivery had been given and the tow,
postal district had been extended from the top 01
Love Lane, Oldswinford, to a point near the Brett&
Laae railway station. There were three addition!,
daily arrivals of mails from Birmingham, and on,
additional from London, and an additional des
patch both to London and Birmingham. The de
livery of letters in the rural district had been ex-
tended, and Mr. Knight instanced one thinly-popu-
lated place where formerly there was no delivers,
and where the letters were put in a public-hone
window till people saw and fetched them. The in.
creased work of the office had been performed with
increa,ing difficulties from the want of light, space,
and ventilation in the department, .and he hoped it_
the new office the business would be carried on t
the satisfaction of the department and of the pub
lie generally. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Platt said a new post office was not openeG
every day, an 1 it was thought by the postmaster
that it e euld be a mistake to allow it to be epenfe
without something h ing Salt If an o (Jittery trirn
shop was opened there was renerally an advertise-
ment ot some kina about it—(laughter)---and to
let an occasion of the kind pace over, as tbei,
fri Cs at Kidderminster did, without a word being
sail seemed un 'ear +tile, He agreed with Mr
Kniglif that it would be well to have a formal open
ing of the office, and he had therefore iuvi ed then;
to be prF sent. He proposed to purchase the first
stamp and to post the first letter, with the view oi
formally opening the new office, and he read a lett, r
which he had written to Mr. W J. Turney congrat
ulasln4 him upon the npening of the office. Mr
Platt said it was an appropriate site for a post offi,
as it adjoinee the Coach and Hor-w, from whimn
the mail usafiLes boon running in the last century.
The first post office, he believed, was established in
the reign of Edward ILL, but was only used for th,
transmission of Government documents, Parliament-
ary writs, &c, and it was many years before it was
thought of sending private communications by th,
tog. Mr. Platt remarked upon the great develop
pleat of postal business in modern times; and,
after some further remarks, declared the new offict
open for public business.
Mr. W. J. Turney, who was invited to speak, con
fratulated this architect particularly, and the_
builder, upon the thorough success they had
attained in the new office. (Hear, hear.) Be agreed
with a remark that had fallen from Mr. Platt, that
the premises were none too large. and the first
thought that struck him when he entered was that
they would have to enlarge them before mans
years. For the present, at least, they were quite
equal to any demand that might be made upon
them, and it would be a very simple matter to take
in the property next door, and, when necessary he
took it that Government would not be behind in
any necessary alterations.
Mr. Turney exp °seed regret that the frontage
line was not thrown back while the alteration was
being made.
Mr. H. Billingham also made a few remarks, and
contrasted the postal business of the town now with
what it was when he came to Stourbridge fifts
, yea-s ago, when a female took out the letters, an.:
there wee but one delivery a day.
_ _

The busiee.42 of the office at one o)mmencfd
after the speaking was over, and the old office vas
almost instantaneously clo•ed.

DRUNBENNESS.—It the Police Court on Thursday
before Messrs. T. D. Thomas and W. J. Turney,
William Walters was charged with being drunk and
disorderly on the 12th inst., in Lower High Street.
Sergeant Char° proved that defendant was drunk
and creating a disturbance. Fined 2s 6d and costs
—James Brett was charged with being drunk utei
disorderly on the 12th inst., in New Street. P.Cs,
Farley and Paynter proved the case. A. witness
was callsd for the defence but defendant was lined
5s and costs.—Francis Pearson was charted with
being drunk on the 19th inst., at the Lye. Fined
28 6 and o StEl.
BREACki OF THE PZICE. William Russ ,11 end
John Gartner were charged with committin! s
breach of the peace by fighting on the 19th inst.
D, fendants were further charged with damazine
a chair and piano,ithe property of John Fleetwood,
laedierd of the Star and Anchor, Coventry Street,
on the 19th inst. Mr. Fleetwood saw the defend-
nil fighting in his smoke-room. A chair Was
broken and the piano was damaged to the extent of
10s —Ser, cent Chare and C. Davis pi osr d eei
defendants fighting in the publ'e-house. Defeld.
ants were or,:ered to enter into their own recegnia-
ances to keep the peace for 6 months. They were
fined 2s 6 i and 5s damage each. Ganner was fined
5s and cote for being drunk on licensed premises.
SrEALING CosL.-e-Mary Kendrick, Harriet Smith,
an I He/nal Cogzell, three young women, were
chsrged with stea in a quantity of coal, on the 214
inst , the property of Messrs. Rut:ford nut
6: r4eatit Oakey said in consequ, ace of information
r,ceived he was watching in house ne4r Messie..
ltuffords' Works. He saw the three defenden.s
'ease :he works with something talky under their
elothes. When they got on to the Birmiughain
itcad he stopped them. He took hold of Smith and
'eked her what she had got, but stet would nol
speak and tried to get away. He then found the
piece of coal (produced) wrapped up in a shael.
‘srhile he was taking it from her Kendrick dropped
two pieces of coal from under her shawl, He
fount Another piece on Cogzell. The defendnuts
worked for complainants.* He asked them if they
had leave to t4ke the coal and they said ,they hau
uot.-:Mr. Holeroft said they wished to put a stop
, to this sent of thing, as they had fabout 100 tons of
ccal a year stolen.—Defendants were fined 104 each,
or 7 days,

Gami TuEsPass.—Henry Hodgetts, Henry Fox,
George Atilt), AlUert Arkle, Henry Crisp, Thorns*,
lit.nry Irish, Henry Styles. Joseph Waldron,
Levi Waldron, and John Mogg were charged with
trespsssing on land at Broom Hill, on the 6th inst.,
the property of Benjamin Hadley, in search of game
—air. Smith-Dorsett (instructed by Messrs. Stukeb
ant Hooper) def,nded. After hearing the evidence
f Georo What more the Beach dismissed the case.
A CAuTloN.—Samuel Fletcher was charged wit,:
lug drunk and disorderly and refusing to quit.
Detndaut has been p eviousty convicted anu he
was now fined 51 and costs.

:.,:CHOOL BOARD CASES.—John Simpkiss and Jas.
Vsi were summoued by Insiector /ea. ex fur nut
udiuti tnekr uhreu to schuul Legulati,y. Thu
eases were adiolltUild r iLotith.