The Plumridges of Marlow would have been well known to our Great Marlow ancestors as builders, bricklayers, beer-sellers and brewers. But today's subjects are two of those comparatively rare few to have followed a different occupation, at least some of the time! Both had connections to the Post Office. First up is Daniel Plumridge who was a postman in Victorian Marlow.
There have been a large number of Plumridges in the Great Marlow Parish area from the Tudor era, if not long before. Daniel was one of those born just outside Marlow itself c1839, in Cadmore End. (Usually rendered as "Cadmer End" or "Cadmor End", Fingest Parish in the earlier days). His parents Thomas and Rebecca worked in what must be some of the most typical occupations in this area at the time. Thomas spent his working life largely as an agricultural labourer and chair maker, while mum Rebecca was a lacemaker. Cadmer End was the more populous part of Fingest Parish at this time, but it was and still is a beautiful rural area. It formerly had a number of brickworks ..bricks and Plumridges are never far apart! Daniel however began to work from a young man as a postman in Cadmer End. Despite all the travelling involved in a rural route, in the Victorian imagination the role of a rural postman stereotypically went to someone lame or not perhaps as mobile as they had once been who could not keep up as an agricultural labourer. How many of these limping postman were actually about is hard to say, but young Daniel certainly did not fit that image. Whether he filled that other stereotype of taking a good while to complete his round by stopping at each cottage door for a gossip we don't know. But as a letter was the primary means by which the inhabitants recieved personal news from afar, both good and bad, he must often have been a longed for sight hoving into view in his uniform. It was noted that into the 1890s few Marlow homes had letterboxes within their front doors, which greatly slowed down the delivery of letters, as the postman had to wait at each house for the door to be opened so he could hand over the mail. An appeal was made to install them, and not to delay the workers in their rounds too much with chit chat. But who knows if anyone took any notice!
Although postman were usually called letter-carriers in the early days in general, I have noticed that locally "post man" was in popular use much earlier. Postman was adopted nationally as it better reflected the work of the men when they began to carry packages too.
In 1864 Daniel married Elizabeth Hannah Davis. Elizabeth was the daughter of the Bovingdon Green beer sellers William and Hannah Davis of The Jolly Cricketers. The couple set up home in Queens Road and Cambridge Place, Marlow. Other Plumridges filled several of the homes in this area, and had indeed built some of them. The pub in the road, The Duke Of Cambridge, also had a Plumridge at the helm and indeed had been built by them. At this point Daniel was working as..a bricklayer. Was it for one of his Plumridge relatives? Very likely. Later, Daniel is referred to as chairmaker. In any case Daniel must have liked his work for the postal service as a few years later, he is back in the role of postman, this time in Marlow. Elizabeth's paid work was as a dressmaker, and the couple also took in lodgers.
Daniel remained a post man into the early years of the 20th century, living in and around Queens Rd for some 30 years. (At the time of his daughter Rosa's marriage in late 1901, he had moved a few minutes away to Quoiting Square.) It must have been interesting for him to see how the town expanded with new developments, especially at the hands of various Plumridge builders. Marlow's Victorian residents could enjoy more than one post delivery a day (3 in 1880) except Sundays when there was one. In the same way the boxes were emptied more than once. The exact schedule varied over time, except on Sundays. Usually the longer distance items came by train from Maidenhead and by mail cart before that. When Marlow got her own station, the post arrived in town sooner and so deliveries were moved back too. At the time that Daniel started his work in Marlow, the last letters left here on the 4.15pm train, but this was eventually moved back to just after 8pm. Deliveries were even made on Christmas Day itself (although just one usually).
In 1891, the Plumridge's 14 year old son George Henry was working for the Post Office, as a telegraph messenger. This role was usually given to younger men, but it was regarded as a responsible one and a good start. Messages received at the telegraph office naturally had to be taken to the recipient and this was the messengers responsibility.
The community had to rely on the honesty of their letter carriers, an issue in the public eye here in 1885 after Marlow man James Morgan spent a year in prison for stealing postal orders entrusted to him as a postman in Bedford. He was taking on a temporary cover role in that town - otherwise he was a chimney sweep. In total he stole 3 postal orders over two weeks. Nothing of a similar kind seems to have troubled those recieving mail within Marlow itself. Morgan received a reduced sentence because he was only a temporary relief postman so it was considered a less severe betrayal of trust. He had not lived in Marlow long before his apprehension.**
If the postal staff had opportunities for mischief so did members of the public. Daniel sometimes arrived at post box to find that a miscreant had broken off the enamel tablets fastened to the pillar boxes. These gave the details of the the collection times. An appeal was made by the postal authorities locally in 1891 to plead with people to leave this essential information alone!
Another annoyance for Daniel was the "cribbed, cabined and confined" conditions in the main post office in West Street, especially in terms of the space available for recieving packages. It had occupied two different sites there at various times but neither one had been designed to deal with the explosion in popularity of the post. In 1894 it was finally decided to go ahead with long debated plans to move the post office. Institute Road was the first considered site but the town was not happy with this. In the end the grand and attractive Cromwell House in the centre of the High Street was secured, although not until 1897, opening early the following year. It was converted from a house*. (Even this did not please some of the residents of West Street who lamented having a slightly longer journey to reach the main branch now it was no longer in their road. Plans were made for a sub post office there for their convenience! You could also find another sub post office within a couple of minutes of the High Street, in the grocers on the corner of Station Rd and Mill Lane as it was then. In 1897 Mr Yeoman was in charge there. See pic below.)
William Plumridge of Lane End
Our second Plumridge connected to the post service is non conformist William Plumridge, of Lane End, son of James and Esther. William worked as a chairmaker and later as a baker, grocer and sub post master at Lane End throughout the late Victorian period. He was assisted by wife Mary nee Ellis and sons Thomas and William at times. William junior's work delivering bread for the family business made him a witness in the Moor End Common murder case which you can read about here.
William senior was obviously a hardworking individual but on his death as an elderly man in 1904 he had a number of debts. His estate could not cover these, to the embarrassment of his family. There is nothing especially unusual about this but the unexpected resolution of the issue was. Three years after his death William made headlines around the country. An anonymous well wisher paid all of his debts off in full, long after his creditors had resigned themselves to writing them off. He or she did so as a "token of esteem" for William and his family. The identity of the benefactor(s) was not seemingly revealed, at least not publicly. Perhaps they had spent the years between the death and pay off saving the necessary funds (£167) or perhaps they had been away and unaware of the problem until 1907. Either way, it was a nice thing to do. William junior succeeded his father as sub post master and grocer, also acting as a house agent. Multi tasking obviously ran in the family! There were Plumridges fulfilling the roles of sub postmasters and bakers in Lane End for long after the period our blog covers.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day.
Further information:
*History of Cromwell House can be found here
**James Morgans wife applied for parish relief for herself and her 4 children while her husband was awaiting trial at the Bedford Assizes. The Board of Guardians rule was that no "outdoor" parish relief could be given to the family of those in prison, including those waiting trial. (That is no assistance other than a ticket for admission to the workhouse could be offered.) However Marlow's Walter Lovegrove, one of the Guardians spoke on the behalf of Mrs Morgan, and pleaded for compassion. He was seconded by Marlow's vicar and fellow board member Rev Arthur Fearon who reminded everyone the principal of innocent until proven guilty. In the end a vote to give the family 3s a week plus three loaves of bread was carried unanimously despite grumblings from 3 members about the rule bending. It was one of many examples of Walter Lovegrove speaking out firmly in the interests of Marlow's poor and unfortunate. The relief stopped when James was convicted.
To find every mention of an individual here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There's over 6,000 people listed there. Great Marlow itself is the focus of this blog but for other posts relating to Lane End, Cadmore End and around that we do have, see the index here
If you are interested in some of the other families who quite literally built our town, see the Men Who Built Marlow posts Lovell here Bond here Corby here.
SOURCES:
Kelly's Directory for Buckinghamshire 1852, 1883, 1905, 1911,1920,1939. (Kelly's Directories Ltd)
Notice - Changes to Postal Delivery - 1874, 1875, 1877. Thanks to James Purdsey for a view of these.
Census, 1841-91 - Transcript from the microfilm made by Jane Pullinger.
Oxford Journal 29 May 1847.
South Bucks Free Press 5 May 1860
Chesham Examiner 21 January 1891.
Boston Guardian 7 December 1907, and South Bucks Standard August 1894 - these two copies via the BNA.
Slough, Windsor and Eton Express Oct 31 1885 - Slough Libraries.
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