From the Library……
This is a new column and in it I will include short pieces and articles from our Library.

Valentines and the Post Office
Postage was not pre-paid in the early days and so malicious Valentines could be sent but the recipient had to pay. By the 1820’s most places had a local Penny Post but posting beyond that was costly. Valentines traditionally are given anonymously and in country areas, Post Offices would blur or apply an indistinct cancel to disguise the place of origin. Post Office records show correspondence where recipients of rude Valentines had tried to obtain a refund of the postage. The Solicitor to the Post Office in 1817 said it should be refunded. He suggested Valentines were a good source of revenue but caution was required. By 1824, Sir Francis Freeling, Secretary of the Post Office, was concerned by the volume of complaints and reported to the Postmaster General. He stated refunds were made if anything was gross or personally offensive and ordered the single letter rate to apply to any Valentine in an envelope. Lord Chichester, the Postmaster General agreed with the Solicitor.

In 1827 Sir Francis Freeling wrote again and cited rulings he had made for a refund and also for withholding a refund. This also raises the use of envelopes, which even at this time were being used, despite doubling the postage payable.

Quality and taste suffered, going further than the comic content of the seaside postcard, which found fame in Edwardian times and beyond. In 1857 the Post Office issued an order forbidding smudging of postmarks on Valentines. In that year a number of Valentines were sent to distant country Post Offices with a request that they be posted there. A statement was sent to say where they were from and the means used to elude detection.

By Edwardian times popularly used Valentines were in the form of a postcard. In 1926 they were revived, after a diminished interest during WWI but they had become commercial. In 1936 the Post Office issued the first Greetings Telegram specifically for Valentines Day. This practice continued until the outbreak of WWII. How many have survived you wonder.