Post by Matt James on Apr 13, 2009 15:23:40 GMT
If there was a disagreement about being sent out so soon after coming in the rule was �take your telegrams out and complain to the Inspector when you get back, that way the job was still done
Urgent telegrams had a blue sticker on the top left hand corner of the envelope and that telegram had to be delivered first.
�Express�letters and packets were also part of the job
�Railex� is when a letter or packet arrives by train and you go to the station to collect it and deliver it several times a reporter from the Birmingham Post & Mail had arrived to collect it before you, some of the packets were photo�s which they wanted urgently
�Answering Service� was an office at 8 Severn Street, Birmingham. They took phone messages, they wrote then on message pads and we collected and delivered them
I think the price of a word on a telegram was 6d (3pence)
Alf Britton Inspector of Messengers was always smartly dressed also Wilf Ducket (welfare) who eventually became Inspector of Messenger you could hear Wilf coming along the corridor, having metal tips on his shoes , it was a stone or concrete floor
At 18 years old it mean�t moving on to be a Postman, indoors or outdoor and the training was in Bellis Street Ladywood Birmingham near Weston D.O. it was a Postal Training School
There was 2 Instructors Mr Hood and another man, they taught us sorting, bag tying, & postal procedures, etc, and I think it lasted 2 weeks
Top rate was age 28, my wage at 16 was �4-17/- (�4-85) with a 47 hour week
The early shift with a trip to the markets (bull ring) then back to do the Gum Pots in the upstairs Telegraph Room , after that back to our room to write out and hand stamp the sheets (dockets) for each boy on that duty
I can still recall the sound of the cylinder rattling in the vacuum air tube sent down from the Telegraph Room upstairs bringing telegrams for delivery
When it was your turn to go to the Telegraph Room to collect the Greeting Telegrams it was a chance to see the girls
We used to have to wear an arm band before the uniform arrived and a youngster once asked if it was German
I used to take black & white photos but changed to transparencies for 2 films to view on a hand held viewer several of the transparencies were of me in uniform, when I moved in 1987 they were one of two articles that went missing and I never found them I wished I had them now to put on to this fabulous web site for telegram messenger boys
I preferred delivering Telegrams to postal messenger between government departments in the town centre
I didn�t like the bike maintenance in that dingy room downstairs & didn�t like the spiral staircase to the Head Postmasters Office, if a T.D.C. was out of action, I enjoyed taking telegrams, etc on the bus, usually at the end of a shift on our way home, and the bus fare was claimed next day
There was lots of greeting telegrams sent at Panto time (Christmas) to stars like Mike & Bernie Winters Mikki & Griff, Jewell & Woriss, etc just to name a few people I saw
When a big Rock Show was at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Marty Wilde, Vince Eager, Eddy Cockran, Billy Fury, etc I couldn�t get to the stage door in either Inge or Thorpe Street Birmingham, it was crowded with mostly girls shouting and screaming, a hand from behind the stage door came towards me grabbed the telegrams from me and slammed the door shut, I received a 2/6 tip (13pence) from Desmond Carrington who was an actor / presenter then. He was a popular person who was cutting ribbon to open a flower shop in Hurst Street he was with Jill Browne they were in a serial on T.V Emergency Ward 10. He still is on Radio 2 on a Tuesday night
Looking out the window of the locker room of Pinfold Street one Saturday night to see a queue for a film which was screened Saturday Night and Sunday Morning it was called �Kitchen Sink� , the queue was from the ABC in New Street, down Ethel Street and up Pinfold Street
A department store in New Street Marshal & Snelgrove wouldn�t let us in the store so we had to go to the goods entrance at the rear of the store by the Big Top P.O.
There was something called a �Bank Stop� If anyone had lost or had their P.O. Savings Book stolen a telegram was sent to every P.O. in the area so no one could draw money out .I liked the �Sam Brown� belt a lot didn�t
There was an initiation ceremony for new telegram messenger boys (wags as known in Birmingham) of cold tea leaves in the hat, I missed that
If the seat of your trousers wore out a piece of uniform material was given you for your mom to sow it in
We were sometimes known as Young Postmen
Some of the lads bent their hats out of shape
There were still �Pea Soupers� of fog in the early 1960�s in King Edward Road ,one night in November out of the mist a rocket shot across the road missing the front wheel by inches it disappeared up someone�s entry
Delivering telegrams to the offices on the balcony in the Wholesale markets, returning to finding a piece of wood joined through the front spokes , done for a joke by market workers on another occasion when a lorry had a puncture I couldn�t get out so me and the bike were lifted over the boxes to the nearest exit
Whilst delivering to a Hospital on Christmas Day it was so cold to the ears I thought they had dropped off
We delivered to the Town Hall and I meet Ralph Reader a big name in Scouting and was given a 2/6 tip (13 pence)
I also Delivered to Bingley Hall, Broad Street, Birmingham, and was allowed in at the ticket desk which I delivered to Dick Emery, Dickie Henderson and Peter West, a commentator for the BBC
The names of the PHG�s George Horsley, Larry Goldberger, Barry Price and Mr Macklin- never knew his first name
There was so much development in the Birmingham City Centre in the early 1960�s meant there was difficulty in finding the person named on the telegram on some building sites, sites such as Woolworths New Street, Aston University Gosta Green, New Street Station
Apart from Cable & Wireless in Great Charles Street there was a Western Union Cable Office in Easy Row and a Commercial Cable in Edmund Street
The POYC Post Office Youth Club was an experience of playing snooker and darts and listening to the latest single on a record player. I think it was 6d (3 pence) a week for the club and 6d ( 3 pence) for a contribution towards a single, everyone had a choice when it was their turn
Sometimes we had a ride on the bus to Clay Lane Yardley Birmingham to the RLB Department, carrying a Leather Brief Case with the initials ER11 in gold on it
Despite the shifts, unsocial able hours, the weather I liked the Post as I still call it and I was their from 1960 � 1962 covering Birmingham 1 to 5�s by foot and cycle
I met Ken Orm and Mick Foulger who partly trained me as he started in 1959, Keith Cheshire came around the time I was moving on to Postman, also met Gordon O�Conner
I have listed some names of other telegram messenger boys (wags) but don�t know some of their full names so if any one out there who knows them please help me out
Keith Bell
Terry O�leary
George ? (He liked photography)
Dave Wareing
Graham Round
Ken Fenton
? Wilshire (his father was a P.O.Inspector)
? Harris
John Taylor
Alan Carey
? Walker
? Pollard
? Johnson
? McCreedy 2 brothers
Daryl ?
Walter Vickers
Urgent telegrams had a blue sticker on the top left hand corner of the envelope and that telegram had to be delivered first.
�Express�letters and packets were also part of the job
�Railex� is when a letter or packet arrives by train and you go to the station to collect it and deliver it several times a reporter from the Birmingham Post & Mail had arrived to collect it before you, some of the packets were photo�s which they wanted urgently
�Answering Service� was an office at 8 Severn Street, Birmingham. They took phone messages, they wrote then on message pads and we collected and delivered them
I think the price of a word on a telegram was 6d (3pence)
Alf Britton Inspector of Messengers was always smartly dressed also Wilf Ducket (welfare) who eventually became Inspector of Messenger you could hear Wilf coming along the corridor, having metal tips on his shoes , it was a stone or concrete floor
At 18 years old it mean�t moving on to be a Postman, indoors or outdoor and the training was in Bellis Street Ladywood Birmingham near Weston D.O. it was a Postal Training School
There was 2 Instructors Mr Hood and another man, they taught us sorting, bag tying, & postal procedures, etc, and I think it lasted 2 weeks
Top rate was age 28, my wage at 16 was �4-17/- (�4-85) with a 47 hour week
The early shift with a trip to the markets (bull ring) then back to do the Gum Pots in the upstairs Telegraph Room , after that back to our room to write out and hand stamp the sheets (dockets) for each boy on that duty
I can still recall the sound of the cylinder rattling in the vacuum air tube sent down from the Telegraph Room upstairs bringing telegrams for delivery
When it was your turn to go to the Telegraph Room to collect the Greeting Telegrams it was a chance to see the girls
We used to have to wear an arm band before the uniform arrived and a youngster once asked if it was German
I used to take black & white photos but changed to transparencies for 2 films to view on a hand held viewer several of the transparencies were of me in uniform, when I moved in 1987 they were one of two articles that went missing and I never found them I wished I had them now to put on to this fabulous web site for telegram messenger boys
I preferred delivering Telegrams to postal messenger between government departments in the town centre
I didn�t like the bike maintenance in that dingy room downstairs & didn�t like the spiral staircase to the Head Postmasters Office, if a T.D.C. was out of action, I enjoyed taking telegrams, etc on the bus, usually at the end of a shift on our way home, and the bus fare was claimed next day
There was lots of greeting telegrams sent at Panto time (Christmas) to stars like Mike & Bernie Winters Mikki & Griff, Jewell & Woriss, etc just to name a few people I saw
When a big Rock Show was at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Marty Wilde, Vince Eager, Eddy Cockran, Billy Fury, etc I couldn�t get to the stage door in either Inge or Thorpe Street Birmingham, it was crowded with mostly girls shouting and screaming, a hand from behind the stage door came towards me grabbed the telegrams from me and slammed the door shut, I received a 2/6 tip (13pence) from Desmond Carrington who was an actor / presenter then. He was a popular person who was cutting ribbon to open a flower shop in Hurst Street he was with Jill Browne they were in a serial on T.V Emergency Ward 10. He still is on Radio 2 on a Tuesday night
Looking out the window of the locker room of Pinfold Street one Saturday night to see a queue for a film which was screened Saturday Night and Sunday Morning it was called �Kitchen Sink� , the queue was from the ABC in New Street, down Ethel Street and up Pinfold Street
A department store in New Street Marshal & Snelgrove wouldn�t let us in the store so we had to go to the goods entrance at the rear of the store by the Big Top P.O.
There was something called a �Bank Stop� If anyone had lost or had their P.O. Savings Book stolen a telegram was sent to every P.O. in the area so no one could draw money out .I liked the �Sam Brown� belt a lot didn�t
There was an initiation ceremony for new telegram messenger boys (wags as known in Birmingham) of cold tea leaves in the hat, I missed that
If the seat of your trousers wore out a piece of uniform material was given you for your mom to sow it in
We were sometimes known as Young Postmen
Some of the lads bent their hats out of shape
There were still �Pea Soupers� of fog in the early 1960�s in King Edward Road ,one night in November out of the mist a rocket shot across the road missing the front wheel by inches it disappeared up someone�s entry
Delivering telegrams to the offices on the balcony in the Wholesale markets, returning to finding a piece of wood joined through the front spokes , done for a joke by market workers on another occasion when a lorry had a puncture I couldn�t get out so me and the bike were lifted over the boxes to the nearest exit
Whilst delivering to a Hospital on Christmas Day it was so cold to the ears I thought they had dropped off
We delivered to the Town Hall and I meet Ralph Reader a big name in Scouting and was given a 2/6 tip (13 pence)
I also Delivered to Bingley Hall, Broad Street, Birmingham, and was allowed in at the ticket desk which I delivered to Dick Emery, Dickie Henderson and Peter West, a commentator for the BBC
The names of the PHG�s George Horsley, Larry Goldberger, Barry Price and Mr Macklin- never knew his first name
There was so much development in the Birmingham City Centre in the early 1960�s meant there was difficulty in finding the person named on the telegram on some building sites, sites such as Woolworths New Street, Aston University Gosta Green, New Street Station
Apart from Cable & Wireless in Great Charles Street there was a Western Union Cable Office in Easy Row and a Commercial Cable in Edmund Street
The POYC Post Office Youth Club was an experience of playing snooker and darts and listening to the latest single on a record player. I think it was 6d (3 pence) a week for the club and 6d ( 3 pence) for a contribution towards a single, everyone had a choice when it was their turn
Sometimes we had a ride on the bus to Clay Lane Yardley Birmingham to the RLB Department, carrying a Leather Brief Case with the initials ER11 in gold on it
Despite the shifts, unsocial able hours, the weather I liked the Post as I still call it and I was their from 1960 � 1962 covering Birmingham 1 to 5�s by foot and cycle
I met Ken Orm and Mick Foulger who partly trained me as he started in 1959, Keith Cheshire came around the time I was moving on to Postman, also met Gordon O�Conner
I have listed some names of other telegram messenger boys (wags) but don�t know some of their full names so if any one out there who knows them please help me out
Keith Bell
Terry O�leary
George ? (He liked photography)
Dave Wareing
Graham Round
Ken Fenton
? Wilshire (his father was a P.O.Inspector)
? Harris
John Taylor
Alan Carey
? Walker
? Pollard
? Johnson
? McCreedy 2 brothers
Daryl ?
Walter Vickers