Today we were entertained by the Surrey Postal History Group (SPHG) with several displays from various members, five of which, also happen to be Bookham members. (left to right in the above picture: Phil Kenton, Patrick Awcock, Michael Miller, Graham Mytton, Tony Merson, Roger Vaughan in front of Michael.)Graham Mytton stared the ball rolling with a history of Coldharbour, which is where Graham lives. His house was the former Post Office and was owned by the Roffey family. The PO opened in 1852 and made its farewell in another location in 1996.
Phil Kenton gave us a run through of Surrey Postal History from Esher, to Dorking, Cobham and Guildford. Phil also showed Derek Weston’s collection of Chertsey covers as Derek was unable to attend.
The first half finished with Michael Miller’s collection of part Surrey, formerly Arthur Moyles collection, who sadly died a few years ago. Arthur was one of the stalwarts of the SPHG and collected almost everything connected to Surrey PH. Michael showed us a postcard from Reginald Bray who used to cycle around Surrey and send postcards to well-known people of the area and asked them to autograph it, and then send it back to him for his collection. A book has been written about Reginald Bray, ‘The Man Who Posted Himself,’ by John Tingey.
The second half started with covers showing various postal marks of Godalming, along with some local Post Office strike covers from 1971. We also saw the local Godalming Chrsitmas Scout and Girl Guide covers complete with unofficial stamps, all displayed by Michael Miller.
Tony Merson then showed a mixture of postal marks on covers from Godstone.
We finished the afternoon with Patrick Awcock’s Parcel Post in Surrey. One highlight was the hi-jacking of stolen mail in the 1970s, which was on its way from London to Reigate. Patrick showed us some covers that were recovered from the hi-jacking along with the Post Office letters of explanation for the delay in the mail.