The History of The Post Box

 When I was sorting out the chest of drawers in the crafting half of my bedroom I re-found this book of postcards all about Post Boxes.

I've had it for ages, from a car boot sale probably.

 

The first pages in the book of postcards tell the story of the post box

 

 

 

 Some of the postcards feature commemorative postage stamps from 2002. Had a look to see which ones of the set I had - but just two out of the 5 which were issued. (Many years ago we trimmed stamps for a charity and I have a good collection up to the year 2000 which is when the charity stopped delivering and picking up) after that I have very few and rarely see any commemorative stamps on my post now.

other postcards are copies of old posters.

 

 "Post Early For Christmas" isn't a new plea - the copy of a poster below is from 1961      

 

and even further  back in 1945 they were still asking the same thing

The Post Box below featured quite often as my header as it was at the other end of the lane from the cottage. It was a very annoying letter box with a slot marked "letters only" and there was literally no space to get anything in that was bigger than postcard size. Birthday cards and Christmas cards needed a bike ride down the road for a mile and a half to one with a bigger slot.

 

 

My nearest post box now.....plenty of room to post all sorts and just 200 yards away from home

One of the 10 oldest post boxes in the country is in Suffolk. I go past it when driving to visit youngest daughter and one of the few  Edward VIII post boxes is also in Suffolk.

I feel a new hobby starting.........................watch this space!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Swifts

 This small book  contains all you ever want to know about Swifts unless you are even more obsessed than the author.

 

It's been shortlisted for The Wainwright Book Prize for nature writing.

The Publishers  website describes the book............................... 

 Swifts live in perpetual summer. They inhabit the air like nothing on the planet. They watched the continents shuffle to their present places and the mammals evolve. They are not ours, though we like to claim them. They defy all our categories and present no passports as they surf the winds across the world, sleeping in the high thin air, their wings controlled by an alert half-brain. Common swifts – a numerous but profoundly un-common bird – are Charles Foster’s joy and obsession. The euphoria of their springtime arrival gives way to such painful bereavement when they depart that he tries to stay with them – manically, lyrically, scientifically – as they travel, catching up with them in Mozambique, over the cliff-tops of southern Spain, and as they mingle with worshippers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Fiercely rejecting the idea that swifts are ‘just’ birds – indeed that anything is ‘just’ anything – The Screaming Sky is a radical engagement with the infinite complexity of a species. It steps back, looks to the skies, and stands in awe of these magnificent birds.

The only place I've lived and been able to see swifts all summer was during our year in the very small Ipswich bungalow. Looking up almost anytime they were always about - there must have been good high nesting places in town. At the smallholding and at Clay Cottage they could be spotted occasionally  but never everyday through the summer. Here in the village there are some that use an old pub for nesting and I've seen them several times when walking down that road.

 I should think they've left early this summer to fly south - the weather has been horrible. As I type this it is 14℃ and raining. At the moment it sounds good to be a swift and follow the summer!  

 

An interesting read and as I often say................thank goodness for the library......otherwise I wouldn't have read it.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

 

 

 

 

 

Framlingham Castle

 Last week we took Grandson to Framlingham Castle. This was on my list of places that I'd not been to for many years, the list I wrote before the covid thing shut everything down.

We had to book online the day  before but went a bit early so we could picnic and meet up with Youngest Daughter and Eldest Granddaughter. 

Before meeting we popped into two charity shops where I handily picked up a guide to the castle for 50p instead of the £4 for a new one................not that there was anytime to look at it while actually at the castle as the two grandchildren were on the move all the time.

A late C12 castle built by Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk and home to the earls and dukes of Norfolk for 400 years. Briefly owned by Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII in C16. In 1635 it was sold to a rich lawyer Sir Robert Hitcham and in his will he left it to his old college - Pembroke, Cambridge with  instructions for it to be turned into a poorhouse. The new poorhouse building was erected in 1729 after years of legal wrangling and lasted there for 110 years. It was then used for a Parish Hall and then Pembroke College Cambridge gave it the the Ministry of Works in 1913. It was handed into the care of English Heritage in 1984.

 The first thing we did was to climb up the winding old stairs to  walk the walls, giving a good view all around

 

This building below is the Poorhouse. Inmates were fed and clothed but had to work.

The Tudor chimney tops are one of the features of this castle. Each chimney has a different pattern.

The supports for the old Tudor bridge which went from the castle to the gardens

One of the boards around the wall walk

The castle sits on a small natural rise in the landscape - not really a hill or a rocky outcrop but gives a good view of the land around

 

We found a shady place to sit for a coffee

It was one of the few really sunny and warm days of this summer

The two stone chimneys below are the earliest surviving cylindrical chimneys in England, dating to about 1150. The chimneys were extended in Tudor brick.

A poor photo of the entrance

 

Looking up at the walls from down in the moat - no water - just a footpath all around the castle

 

The ropes are holding down some netting covering areas that are being repaired

There's also a small local history museum in one of the rooms but as we had two 5 year olds with us we didn't really get a chance to look properly!

Much more recently it is the subject of Ed Sheerans song "Castle on the Hill"

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If you want to know more look HERE

Back Tomorrow

Sue