THE POSTMAN: His portrait is an every-day picture of life, and yet not easy to paint. He is the very incarnation of alacrity, the embodied spirit of regularity and precision. Day by day, hour by hour, he is to be seen traversing with rapid step the limits of his own narrow district. The heavens may smile or frown;
revolutions may shake the land; or peace and prosperity gladden its children. Disease may wave its pestilent torch; or sudden calamity sweep away its victims. But the postman is still at his post. A diurnal dispenser of news. A kind of hope in the Queen‘s livery, visiting every one in turn, and welcomed by all. A messenger of life and of death; of gratified ambition, or disappointed desire; or gracious accceptance, or harsh refusal. He is still welcome; for his presence, and that which he brings, at least puts an end to the most cruel of human sufferings - uncertainty. - (Bentley‘s Miscellany - printed in Dover Telegraph 9 June 1838 p.5 col.2 )
River Postmen
c.1920:
WANTED:
Flashback to a an age when life for many was hard, with long working
hours for what seemed a meagre weekly pay packet, but the pace of life appeared to be a good deal slower. These are some of the postmen of River who had a large area to cover, on foot and by bicycle, after first sorting the mail in an "office" (a shed) at the side of Tritton‘s bakery and post office. And the postmen had to cover not only River, but Alkham and Temple Ewell as well. At one time River even had its own postmark.;
