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  1. #1
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    Default Royal Mail sorting offices in 1939

    Can anyone tell me where the Royal Mail postal sorting offices were in Birmingham in 1939 please? Was there one at Tyseley?

    My late uncle was "in digs" at 110 Douglas Road, Birmingham, but I don't know if it's the B27 or the B21 Douglas Road. He was a sorting clerk with The Post Office at that time. I assume he would be lodging near his work place.

    Any help please?

    Paul

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    At https://www.qlhs.org.uk/oracle/2010-w...work/index.htm a worker describes his trip to work as a sorter to the Birmingham sorting office, which he refers to as TH in the centre of birmingham. I it must have been behind the central post office at the end of New St as he describes coming down Newhall st to it

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    Thanks for that Mikejee. I think the chap you refer to was a trainee telephonist based at Telephone House (TH) which would appear to have been adjacent to the main Post Office building in New Street. That is a help - thank you, but I wonder whether there were satellite sorting offices too?

  4. #4
    Ken_R
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    Quote Originally Posted by PaulDorrell View Post
    but I wonder whether there were satellite sorting offices too?
    There certainly were. Hazy memory but I seem to remember one in Yardley Road, (Acocks Green) between the Police Station and the Railway line. A short walk from [that] Douglas Road.

    I've found another site,

    aghs.jimdo.com/oaklandsintro/

    where there is mention of a school being earmarked for the sorting of the Christmas post.

    Have you found his employment entry in the Post Office records on Ancestry?

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    Thank you very much indeed Ken. That makes perfect sense and I am confident that it answers my questions. I may well check with Ancestry, but his actual P.O. service is (at present anyway) secondary to knowing where he was on 3.9.1939.

    Thanks again,

    Paul

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    FMP now have maps showing the address location (scroll down transcription page). If the map is accurate then it's the Douglas Road near New Street station. Other roads nearby (found by using arrows to previous pages are Bramley Road, Stockfield Road, and Stockfield Road.

    Pam
    Vulcan XH558 - “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

  7. #7
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    Hello again Pam,

    I found him there too on the 1939 Register. The Register of Electors also shows him lodging with Mr and Mrs Stonestreet at 110 Douglas Road. It does make sense that he'd get digs closest to where he worked. While I intend to send off for his military service record I have managed to confirm that he was serving in the Royal Corp of signals in support of 78th Division in Sicily when he wrote his letter. After he retired from the Post Office he lived in Erdington for several years but visited us quite often. He was diagnosed with Cancer and was admitted to hospital while visiting us. I registered his death on January 20, 1975. I wish I'd had more time to chat with him. How many people have said that I wonder.

    Many thanks for your interest.

    Paul

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