Ambleside Post Office Bicentenary

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howard H
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Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:00 pm

Ambleside Post Office Bicentenary

Post by howard H »

The following will be too late for action when it appears in the next Newsletter. Looks interesting! Howard

AMBLESIDE POST OFFICE BICENTENARY 1809 – 2009

Display at the Armitt Museum, Ambleside, Cumbria
Opening 4 April 2009 for 1 month.
It is 200 years since the earliest record of an official Post Office in Ambleside when in 1809 Ambleside had a Receiving House of the Kendal Penny Post. The display contains original paintings and engravings from the Armitt Collection and has been arranged by Simon Kelly of Cambridge. It includes illustrations from his postal history collection and takes the visitor through the several sites where the PO has been located around the town right up to the most recent move from the Market Place to the Tourist Office in Central Buildings last year. The postal history of each site is examined with contemporary illustrations and documents showing types of mail through time and how it was carried. Items illustrated range from pre-stamp covers, penny blacks, postal reforms of the 1840s and colourful postmasters and postmistresses. Many famous people have used the Ambleside Post Office from the Wordsworth family to Harriet Martineau. These and other personalities and events bring alive the social history of a Lakeland town.
In addition to the static display, a guided tour of the post office sites and places of postal interest around Ambleside is being arranged and a self-guided town tour explanatory leaflet is being prepared. A short booklet on Ambleside’s postal history will be available.


The Armitt Collection, Rydal Road, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 9BL
Registered Charity No. 1054762
Phone: 015394 31212
Fax: 015394 31313
www.thearmittcollection.com
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