What is Postboxing...
diane graber
I read something about traipsing across Cornwall (and Devon) looking for
hidden boxes that contain rubber stamps. When you have 100 in your book
you can join a "club" and get more clues as to the whereabouts of
others... is there anyone reading this who participates? are there
really mobile stamps?
We visited Cornwall (Bodmin, Looe, Helston/Gweek, St. Ives, Truro, Zennor
, Port Quin) and didn't see an unusual "postboxing" activities!
Richard Hearn
In article <3198F3...@uiowa.edu>, diane graber <diane-
gra...@uiowa.edu> writes
>I read something about traipsing across Cornwall (and Devon) looking for
>hidden boxes that contain rubber stamps. When you have 100 in your book
>you can join a "club" and get more clues as to the whereabouts of
>others... is there anyone reading this who participates? are there
>really mobile stamps?
>
think they have spread to Exmoor, Bodmin moor and other places) which
usually consist of a small plastic box containing a rubber stamp, and if
you're lucky a (usable) inkpad. The stamps have pictures related to the
area around the "letterbox" site.
Yes there is a club, and no I don't know where to get in touch with
them. This info may be out of date - the last time I collected any
stamps was about ten years ago.
I can vaguely recall a story about the origins of the practice being to
do with a letterbox in the middle of the moor (at Dozemary Pool) for
tourists to post postcards home with a local, (touristy) postmark way
back in Victorian times, a service long since ceased. But I may be
talking utter rubbish inwhich case I defer to better informed sources.
>We visited Cornwall (Bodmin, Looe, Helston/Gweek, St. Ives, Truro, Zennor
>, Port Quin) and didn't see an unusual "postboxing" activities!
Are you still in the area?
--
Richard Hearn
Bill Burnett
Richard Hearn <ric...@juggling.demon.co.uk> writes:
>Dartmoor has lots of letterbox stamps hidden around the Tors (and I
>think they have spread to Exmoor, Bodmin moor and other places) which
>usually consist of a small plastic box containing a rubber stamp, and if
>you're lucky a (usable) inkpad. The stamps have pictures related to the
>area around the "letterbox" site.
I'm pretty sure there are some on Bodmin Moor.
Whatever happened to that summer we were going to get the hundred Rich?
B.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Burnett - bb...@wpo.nerc.ac.uk | Not so much the slow
Scottish Association for Marine Science | lane as the hard shoulder...
P.O. Box 3, Oban, Argyll PA34 4AD, UK |
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Roswythyer
Richard Hearn wrote
>I can vaguely recall a story about the origins of the practice being to
>do with a letterbox in the middle of the moor (at Dozemary Pool)
I am not sure whether there is one at Dozmar Pool, but there is one marked
on the map on Fur Tor in the middle of Dartmoor (OS grid ref SX587832).
My mother used to claim to have walked to this one (a 17 mile round trip
from Okehampton) and posted a card in it. This would have been when she
was at the teacher training college in Launceston, and thus circa 1933 --
1937. Given that there are no roads within miles how was it cleared, by a
postman on horseback ? and how often ?
Richard Bowden-Dan
Roswythyer
Malcolm Walker
Richard Hearn wrote:
> I can vaguely recall a story about the origins of the practice being to
> do with a letterbox in the middle of the moor (at Dozemary Pool) for
> tourists to post postcards home with a local, (touristy) postmark way
> back in Victorian times, a service long since ceased. But I may be
> talking utter rubbish inwhich case I defer to better informed sources.
Not quite long since caesed. My mum went up to Dozmary pool when she
first came down to Cornwall about 25 years ago. Apparantly you would find
the letter left by the the previous person and would take it with you to
post, replacing it with the letter of your own.
This is of course the 'Dozmary pool' associated with the return of
Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake in Cornish Arthurian legend. It is also
meant to be the bottom-less lake that the wicked 'Tregeagle' was banished
to empty with nothing but a limpet shell with a hole in it.
Unfortunately my mum was able to prove the latter very unlikely! The lake
is far from bottomless - when she was there she watched a herd of cows
wade from one side to the other!
Malcolm.
Prof M. Madden
Malcolm Walker (walk...@cf.ac.uk) wrote:
: Richard Hearn wrote:
: > I can vaguely recall a story about the origins of the practice being to
: > do with a letterbox in the middle of the moor (at Dozemary Pool) for
: > tourists to post postcards home with a local, (touristy) postmark way
: > back in Victorian times, a service long since ceased. But I may be
: > talking utter rubbish inwhich case I defer to better informed sources.
: Not quite long since caesed. My mum went up to Dozmary pool when she
: first came down to Cornwall about 25 years ago. Apparantly you would find
: the letter left by the the previous person and would take it with you to
: post, replacing it with the letter of your own.
: This is of course the 'Dozmary pool' associated with the return of
: Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake in Cornish Arthurian legend. It is also
: meant to be the bottom-less lake that the wicked 'Tregeagle' was banished
: to empty with nothing but a limpet shell with a hole in it.
but what were the other tasks that he had to do? and what was the role of the
hermit of roche rock in all this??
mm
Prof M. Madden
: >I can vaguely recall a story about the origins of the practice being to
: >do with a letterbox in the middle of the moor (at Dozemary Pool)
: I am not sure whether there is one at Dozmar Pool, but there is one marked
: on the map on Fur Tor in the middle of Dartmoor (OS grid ref SX587832).
: My mother used to claim to have walked to this one (a 17 mile round trip
: from Okehampton) and posted a card in it. This would have been when she
: was at the teacher training college in Launceston, and thus circa 1933 --
: 1937. Given that there are no roads within miles how was it cleared, by a
: postman on horseback ? and how often ?
i walked to it (and cranmere pool) in c.1960 with my father and some of his
friends. a long drive from falmouth to bridestowe, and then the long walk
followed by a long drive back. i believe that other walkers were supposed to
take the letters back to a postbox, as someone else suggested (or perhaps it
was the men of oke who did it? although i don't suppose they existed in 1933)
mm