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WENTWORTH


Common Threads:


Characters that framed the villages


female and


Mail


For centuries, Britain’s postal service has connected companies and customers, families and friends; spreading word far and wide from remote and rural corners to bustling towns and cities.


Effie and her stepmother Isabella Carr


The Post Office has become a trusted friend for communities to rely on, its workers always going that extra mile to make keeping in touch a little bit easier.


None more so than Wentworth


Post Office which has been an essential part of village life for over 170 years. Today, the post office remains at the heart of the community and is run by sisters,


‘‘ By 1930, Edith Ogle had taken charge and was assisted by Effie Carr from around 1934’’


Effie Carr


Sophie and Rosie; but these are just two women in a long line of postmistresses that have delivered a first-class service in the village. It is from this fascinating ‘herstory’ which envelopes Wentworth Post Office that local textile artist, Gemma Nemer, has stitched memories from some of the former postmistresses and their families into her current project, Common Threads.


As part of her artist in residency placement with Great Place Wentworth and Elsecar, Gemma has been working with the community to discover how women in both villages made up the fabric of society, highlighting some of the colourful characters from the past.


And with the postal service most in demand during the festive period, what better time to package together the history of this beloved little Post Office with a message from days gone by.


When the General Post Office was launched in 1660 by Charles II, it opened up a whole new world of correspondence across the nation. However, the service was perhaps a little late to be dispatched to Wentworth, with the small village branch opening almost 200 years later. The Earl Fitzwilliam had initially applied for one to be established


52 aroundtownmagazine.co.uk


in 1831 but the original site, now the Rockingham Arms’ bed and breakfast accommodation, eventually opened in 1845. This was due in part to Royal Mail’s introduction of the Uniform Penny Post and the first stamp, the Penny Black, a few years previous; the new single rate pre-paid system made the postal service more affordable and accessible to the general public and thus increased its demand.


The first rural messenger to deliver to Wentworth was George Tate who made the journey from Rotherham on horse and cart and was paid 14 shillings a week plus an extra 10/- for his horse. Tate would set off from Rotherham at 6am seven days a week, stopping first in Greasbrough before arriving at Wentworth at 8.15am and then making his way to Harley and Barrow. He returned at 5.30pm. When the post arrived at


Wentworth it was sorted by a receiver before being delivered across the village by a foot messenger, both of whom worked under the County Sub-Postmaster, William Foster.


By 1872, the daily rural round had grown to cover an approximately 20-mile area between Rotherham and Harley, with 1,567


letters delivered each month - more than a quarter of which were hand-posted around the village. Around this time also saw the first of many postmistresses to take over the address, with female lead operatives far outnumbering men over the subsequent years. Janet Foster was assigned postmistress in 1870, a role in which she remained for over 20 years. Sevilla Amanda Dobson took over for a few years before the longest serving postmistress, Mary Ann Charlton, began her 36-year stint in 1894.


During Mary Ann’s time, the current post office was built in 1914 across the road from the former, just set back from the road at the top of Main Street. It still has the original letterboxes that bear the royal cypher VR and the later EvIIR. By 1930, Edith Ogle had taken charge and was assisted by Effie Carr from around 1934; but little did they know that just a few short years later they would be subjected to the first of three armed raids that would happen at the post office. In May 1937, three youths pulled up in a car around 10.45am and entered the post office, with 21-year-old Effie going to serve them. However, a suspicious Edith told her not to open the cash drawer.


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