Bath No.7 Receiving House

Another scan received courtesy of a new member of the S&DPHG, with detailed information supplied by a long-term member (it really demonstrates the benefit of joining such a group):

The Winifreds Dale Penny Post was established as part of the Bath 5th Clause Post of 1810  as a receiving house at Mr Turner's Shoe-Maker (above Winifred's Dale).  This is mentioned in a extract from the Bath Chronicle headed POST-OFFICE BATH dated SEPT.18th 1810 and then apparently closed in 1811 (due to lack of custom ?).  Just after this there was quite a row about the Bath Postmaster having a private arrangement with the citizens of Lansdown whereby he pocketed 5/- a year so that they could avoid the 1d Penny Post charge - so perhaps no wonder that not many letters came in !  No strike of this Receiving House has been found and we know little about it aside from the fact that it was situated somewhere at the bottom of Sion Hill.

The Post Office notice headed POST-OFFICE BATH July 6th 1804 has no mention of either Winifreds Dale or Sion Hill as Receiving Houses.

A Receiving House was apparently re-established at Sion Hill in 1818 as a foot post (seen in Post Office 1818 Penny Post Survey map) although it is not known when the Boxed No 7 Receiving House handstamp was introduced.  No unboxed number handstamp has been seen.

The earliest date the boxed No.7 has been seen is 12th March 1829 and latest was 18th July 1840 with a 1d Black (in Bath Postal Museum) until the letter above surfaced dated 13th June 1843.

Below is a photograph of the Post Office at Sion Hill taken in the 1960s. This building was used over a long period although there are suggestions that it closed now and again.  One can see from the faded writing on the wall that it had been a long established vegetable and fruit shop. The Post Office there finally closed sometime in the 1950s.