Thursday 13 December 2018

A Christmas Day delivery for Didsbury ……….


Now here is a neat idea ………… a postal delivery on Christmas Day.

That said I would be the first to agree that such a service may not sound so good if you are a postal worker with a family looking forward to Christmas Day in front of the tree, opening presents with the kids.

But once upon a time, as well as multiple deliveries and collections on any one day, the Post Office offered the service of “Posted in advance” for Christmas Day.

This was designed to relieve pressure on delivering Christmas mail, by allowing people to hand in letters and cards from early December for Christmas day delivery and was marked with a special postmark.

All of which makes this picture postcard of Didsbury just that bit different.

The scene is familiar enough and little appears to have changed, although today the pub has been transformed from “young things venue” to a restaurant and the station building to the right has disappeared.

In the same way, I went looking for 6 The Crescent in Disley, but with no success, still I am sure Miss Bennet will have been pleased with her Christmas Day picture postcard from “auntie”.

And more than that, she might be surprised that, according to my old friend David Harrop, an expert on all things posty, these special Christmas day cards can command three figures.

Location; Didsbury & Disley

Picture; picture postcard Didsbury, 1905, from the collection of David Harrop

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