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Epsom and EwellComing in the post
The first daily postal service for Epsom was introduced in 1683 as a convenience for fashionable Londoners taking the waters at the Spa. A relay of messengers ran between London and Guildford, with stopping points at the places in between, and in summer there was a daily collection and delivery at premises in the town. Then a messenger would be despatched to the house or lodging indicated on the letter - 'At Mrs Buntins near the New Wells bowling green' was a typical 1707 address. The cost was fixed at 2d per sheet to London, through which all mail to other destinations was forwarded. Letters which went further, or were longer, cost more. The Postmaster General in London contracted out the responsibility for receiving and forwarding post to local businessmen. In 1769 John Cole, a watchmaker from South Street, was appointed as postmaster for Epsom. He received and despatched the mails, which now ran between London and Dorking, and kept three horses for deliveries to Dorking and Reigate. With the decline of Epsom as a social centre the mails were rerouted onto the Brighton road, and had to be picked up by a donkey cart from the stopping point at Croydon; after the introduction of the London-Portsmouth mail coach in 1795 post came via Kingston. Cole kept the contract for the mails until his death, aged 76 (he was the oldest postmaster in England) but in his later years the business was really run by his daughter Nancy. When he died she went to London to apply for the vacancy but was turned down, on which she 'expressed herself very strongly and improperly' and gave up the contract on the spot: a relief worker had to be sent down to Epsom to forward the evening mail. The next postmaster, John Parish, was suspended in 1806 for defauding the service. But his successor, John Jaquet, was 'highly respectable'. His wife had died young and he had ten children to bring up in the house at 94 High Street, which left only one room free to serve as the post office. Customers stood outside (in the rain if necessary) transacting business through a flap in the door. Jaquet's establishment consisted of two letter carriers, one for Epsom and one for Banstead, Cheam, Ewell and Sutton: the outlying villages were charged 1d each for delivery from Epsom. He received letters up to 11pm, after which the Dorking and Leatherhead mails came in and the postbag was sent by cart to Kingston to catch the mailcoach on its night run to London. The post from London arrived early in the morning, being ready for collection at 6am. The next postmaster, William Andrews, held the office on behalf of his wife Lucy. She was the daughter of William Dorling the printer and saw the postal business as an effective sideline to the family interest in printing and stationery. Under her administration a second postman was taken on to deliver and collect letters in Epsom, while two carriers divided up the walks for villages north and south of the town. One of them, William George, was employed at Epsom for forty years - by which time he had walked a distance equal to twice round the world The increase in staff was a response to the introduction of a uniform penny postage in 1840, which set a flat rate for letters anywhere in the country, instead of charging by distance. Many more letters, stamped with the new Penny Blacks, passed through the ramshackle sorting office in the High Street. The coming of the railway in 1847 meant that the day mail could be taken directly up to London, but for many years the night mail continued to go by cart to Kingston. For the first time letters were deposited in pillar and wall boxes, instead of being taken to the post office: by the turn of the century Epsom had fifty of these. On her husband's death in 1857, Andrews became postmistress. Her daughters Mary and Lucy helped out, and when telegraphs were taken over as part of the postal service in 1870 they acted as the first telegraphists. When Lucy Andrews retired in 1891 her daughter Mary took over as postmistress. For the first time the Epsom representative was made an employee of the GPO rather than a contractor. She set to work persuading her superiors to fund a new building, and in 1898 the present Epsom Post Office was opened. It was 'a credit to the town and an ornament to the High Street', designed with surplus capacity for the spring and summer race meetings when the eighteen tills and nine telegraph compartments were fully occupied. The sorting room at the back had booths for the sorting clerks, segregated tables for newspapers and parcels, a wire cage for the clerk in charge of registered letters, and a raised desk from which the superintendent could oversee affairs. Andrews had a detached postmistress' room, 'a snug little place', and there were rest rooms for the clerks and the twenty-six postmen. The work of the post office had grown since the total post to Banstead, Kingswood, Walton and Headley was 100 letters a week. The first sub-post office was opened in East Street in 1895, run by Frances Perry; it was combined with a newsagent's shop in the now familiar manner, while the second at Station Road (1905), shortly to be transferred to Church Road (1907) functioned from a grocer's. Sub-post offices at Pound Lane (1907) and Langley Vale (1912) formed part of the planning for shopping areas in new residential districts, a pattern which continued into the years of suburban development. Mary Andrews retired in 1902, and after her successor William Meade had been postmaster for thirteen years the job was made part of the GPO career structure rather than being a local civic post. Since then appointments have been made for about five years at a time. The Epsom Post Office is now technically a branch office, the work of sorting having moved to the premises built in East Street in 1956. Ewell, although less populous than Epsom, had better road connections. It became the custom for postboys to stop at the Bulls Head in Cheam Road, then the principal inn, and to despatch separate packets to Sutton, Cheam and Reigate before proceeding to Epsom. In 1802 a more formal arrangement was made for deliveries from Epsom to the surrounding villages, and a receiving house was established with Mr Middleton as sub-postmaster. He was succeeded by James Sawyer, who had a hairdresser's and stationery business on the High Street/Cheam Road corner. The same premises were used by Abdiel Evans, chemist and druggist, until his death in 1870; and then by his widow Harriet until 1903. There was an experimental period when James Brunton tried to combine the post with his newsagent's business (now Williams' at 32 High Street) but he was soon succeeded by Edith Wicks who ran the sub-post office at 3 Cheam Road until her death in 1937. These premises continued in use until 1968 when land became available at 7 High Street, where a lorry had mysteriously backed into and demolished a 16th-century listed building, and the present Post Office was built. When the Epsom area was originally divided into walks, West Ewell came under the Epsom Court and Horton walk since it formed a separate settlement from Ewell village. James Trotter of the Manor attempted to enlist his own letter carrier for Horton in 1842, but was instructed not to infringe the Post Office monopoly of communications. By 1907 West Ewell had its own sub-post office in Plough Road, afterwards moved to Chessington Road where it was enlarged and rebuilt in 1931. At this time the other sub-post offices were set up as part of the planning for suburban development. In 1915 the errand boys of Epsom were taken to task for being late in their duties. It turned out that they had been loitering in the High Street staring at the town's latest novelty, a postwoman. Nora Willis of Horton Lodge had volunteered to take the job in December, and when appointed by the postmaster David Meadows, she was regarded as the country's first postwoman. Willis was equipped with the standard mail bag and badge: a proper uniform did not follow until later, and the 'substantial walking boots' were provided at her own expense. Shortly afterwards Frances Hamilton Pott was enlisted, and both women working part-time took over the job of one man. In consequence a temporary postman (himself a replacement for a regular worker who had already enlisted) was able to leave Epsom for the trenches. The appointment of postwomen, spurred on by the emergencies of the First World War, was seen as a novelty - later on Willis would be approached by film companies as a news item. But women had been regularly employed as letter carriers in earlier years: the Croydon mailcart was delivered by an old woman and her donkey in the 1800s, and a central memorandum of 1853 sanctioned the continued hiring of female staff. Willis and Pott were taken on after a fifty-year period in which female employment had been suppressed. Unlike their predecessors, they came from prosperous backgrounds (Willis later became a councillor) and entered the postal service as a contribution to society. By 1916 the number of postwomen had increased dramatically to 15 out of a total of 33 letter carriers. The clerical staff were almost all women, something which had not been contemplated when Andrews designed the Post Office twenty years before. Several of the postwomen remained in service after the war, but they were invariably made redundant on marriage and as their ranks were thinned they were not replaced. George William Challis: 'I joined the postal staff at Epsom Post Office as an auxiliary postman with a duty of about six hours a day. The Head Office was then a tin hut in Waterloo Road and served for all postal work. Commencing at 9.00 am I took the mail for the whole of Ewell except that part this side of Ewell PO which I had to deliver on my way there; on my return, I brought a sealed bag and collected from letter boxes on my way to Epsom PO which finished at 10.45 am. I then went to my job which was for 4 1/2 hours or say to 4.30 pm then rush home, have my tea and change into uniform which was then grey with red piping. The coat was frocked with two big side pockets and a shako like the Rifle Brigade wore about 100 years ago. Now all dressed up I presented myself for duty at 5.15 pm after getting together the mail which was not a lot except sometimes I would get hat and dress boxes for some of the big houses on the farthest part of my walk. Well, here we go down Waterloo Road through the fields, first call at Templeman's Farm which was in Pound Lane, next two cottages in Kingston Lane - now Hook Road - next Brown's Farm which now belongs to the LCC. Now a nice jaunt to Poplar Farm at the Oaks in Chessington Road near Ruxley Lane. Now back to West Ewell; after serving this area, I continued on to Ewell Court - then to Ewell Court Farm and then down the cart track to some cottages on the bank where the Rembrandt now stands. I still have further to go along the Kingston Road to the Adelaide. This finishes the delivery part but I still have a nice walk back through the fields to Epsom where I arrived at 8.15 pm. You might say it was a nice walk. Well, I would agree it wasn't so bad in the summer time. Well, what about the winter - ah - that's a different story'. 'There were very few shops at Ashtead at this time and I became a link between the shops at Epsom and the maids on my round. I may have been a bit shy at first with some of their commissions but I was soon able to adapt myself to what they wanted. Their principal wants were at the drapers so I can imagine the assistant's embarrassment when I had to match a piece of lace or ribbon elastic or stay busts. In fact I have carried a variety of goods for them. The rural postman, as the men who served the villages were termed, providing he was obliging could make quite a nice bit of pocket money in various ways. While at Ashtead, I have done gardening and helped with pig killing, also I sometimes helped to dig graves. We used to wear bowler hat while doing this to protect our heads from falling chalk. In hot weather we did not get much benefit out of this job as it cost us a good deal of what we earned to pay for refreshment. One bright spot in my day's work was getting to know folks. A good many of the so called gentry were snobs but there were some who were most friendly and forbearing and did not object to their maids giving you a cup of tea - if you happened to be about when that was being made. I know I used to have a lot of invitations but often had to make excuses as time would not allow of too many stops for this purpose. Most of the maids used to welcome the tradesmen and postmen calling for the chance of a friendly chat and a laugh and joke. It was the only diversion from their day to day routine which was fairly exacting in this Victorian era. During the summer when some of the employers were away on holiday, I would get invited to lunch'. 'At Christmas time the work was arduous and we worked long hours but I am sure we got a lot of pleasure out of it. I should say the whole of the staff numbered about 30 at this time. We were a very sociable and united staff and quite a good number when they returned from their rounds on Christmas Eve (delivery at midnight) would stay the night as it was not worth going home for such a short time. I recollect in the short time at our disposal one of the staff would play a harmonium and others would sing. This was the spirit in which we tackled the extra work on hand. One Christmas, I took my mandolin to the office and the supervisor in charge asked me to play through the night to help keep the workers awake. The old office in Waterloo Road consisted of one large room. The public counter at one end was screened by a partition. The place was heated by a large stove in the centre. This was the only means of boiling a kettle or warming any food. I well remember a chap who had evidently had quite a lot of drinks bringing a box of bloaters for his supper. He started cooking these on a toasting fork on top of the fire. His hand not being too steady, the fish kept falling off the fork into the fire but he would soon put another in its place. Just imagine the effluvia that filled the place. This sort of thing was taken in good part by all. Early on a Christmas morning a party would go out and sing carols outside the house of a member of the staff who had not stayed at the office overnight. On Christmas morning the postman looked a proverbial Father Christmas. No extra help was provided and the men went on their rounds loaded to capacity. The public were very tolerant and free with their hospitality. It was late afternoon before men returned from their delivery on this day and few wanted any dinner when they arrived home'.
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