Tag Archives: Post Office

Poems from the Post Office

The post office was the last building on the left, opposite the Lifeboat pub, in this view of High Street. 

From at least the Eighteenth Century the landscape of Kings Weston has inspired poets, but a recent discovery is possibly the most peculiar yet. We chanced upon it in a Victorian book about the Post Office in Bristol. It was written by George Newton, sub-postmaster in Shirehampton, in reply to some query or complaint that had been directed to the Bristol Postmaster from Kings Weston house. Apparently, it was common for Mr Newton to respond to official enquiries in rhyme, “a course which was tolerated on account of its singularity and of the writer’s zeal and known devotion to his duty”. Newton died in 1895, so the following ditty must date before then: