What do we Know About the Postal System of the Shire?

[1stvermont]

As a USPS employee, I have become interested in the postal system of the Shire. I know it was one of the few services by the government of the Shire, I know Sam Gamgee eventually became the postmaster. I know it was small in scale and the Hobbiton branch needed volunteers to distribute Bilbos birthday invitations because there were so many.

But what else do we know? was there a clerk in the Micheal delving office? or was mail only delivered to houses?

 

[Halasían]

I don't think much is said about the Shire Postal System in the published material other than what you have mentioned.

I know a guy who ran The Shire Post website used to have a fanfic Shire Postal System back around the turn of the century and he expanded into making stamps and coins and got shut down by the Estate some years later. He appears on many Middle Earth sites under the 'Will Whitfoot' moniker. Not sure if he ever was on this one. Anyway, you could 'apply' for a Middle Earth address before it was shut down. I think I had one for Coombe.

 

[1stvermont]

I don't think much is said about the Shire Postal System in the published material other than what you have mentioned.

I know a guy who ran The Shire Post website used to have a fanfic Shire Postal System back around the turn of the century and he expanded into making stamps and coins and got shut down by the Estate some years later. He appears on many Middle Earth sites under the 'Will Whitfoot' moniker. Not sure if he ever was on this one. Anyway, you could 'apply' for a Middle Earth address before it was shut down. I think I had one for Coombe.

That is a cool idea. I will look into it.

 

[Hisoka Morrow]

As a USPS employee, I have become interested in the postal system of the Shire. I know it was one of the few services by the government of the Shire, I know Sam Gamgee eventually became the postmaster. I know it was small in scale and the Hobbiton branch needed volunteers to distribute Bilbos birthday invitations because there were so many.

But what else do we know? was there a clerk in the Micheal delving office? or was mail only delivered to houses?

I'm pretty sure postal-like system had already existed since classical age. During the Tang Dynasty of China, the postal system was even famous for the delivery of chinensis to please a emperor's queen.
In ancient time, communication system was much more costly than modern, as an result, stuff for public use such as governmental message usually had the priority to use it. It goes without saying that there must be. It went without saying Bilbo, such a big guy could operate such public resources.
Remember this, most of all, in literature, novels's key elements are those characters. As an result, LOTR series, typical novels, would mainly follow the characters's angle, those not his/her business or involving the plot's progress, wouldn't get mentioned in details. For instance,there'd be nothing but stuff relative with a soldier's rank and Tower-Guard's unit such as comradeship, detailed combat, high-command's security and so forth, when it came to Pippin's angle in ROTK. Thus, just use some common sense then you'd mostly figure out how Shire's postal system'd look like.
JRRT didn't have to insult the readers's intelligence and common sense, detailed settings wouldn't be mentioned too much thus, my dear , unless someone dares smoke up people that him/her self as an literature's big guy, and even forcing other JRRT's fans to follow his/her settings.

 

[1stvermont]

I'm pretty sure postal-like system had already existed since classical age. During the Tang Dynasty of China, the postal system was even famous for the delivery of chinensis to please a emperor's queen.
In ancient time, communication system was much more costly than modern, as an result, stuff for public use such as governmental message usually had the priority to use it. It goes without saying that there must be. It went without saying Bilbo, such a big guy could operate such public resources.
Remember this, most of all, in literature, novels's key elements are those characters. As an result, LOTR series, typical novels, would mainly follow the characters's angle, those not his/her business or involving the plot's progress, wouldn't get mentioned in details. For instance,there'd be nothing but stuff relative with a soldier's rank and Tower-Guard's unit such as comradeship, detailed combat, high-command's security and so forth, when it came to Pippin's angle in ROTK. Thus, just use some common sense then you'd mostly figure out how Shire's postal system'd look like.
JRRT didn't have to insult the readers's intelligence and common sense, detailed settings wouldn't be mentioned too much thus, my dear , unless someone dares smoke up people that him/her self as an literature's big guy, and even forcing other JRRT's fans to follow his/her settings.

I see what you're saying I was just wondering if there were any specifics I had missed somewhere. I try and get all the details if i can before i infer.

 

[Olorgando]

There is one specific term near the beginning of chapter 1 "An Unexpected Party", after Bilbo had just greeted Gandalf (not yet knowing who he was):

"Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, ..."

I may be overstating this (Wikipedia has not yielded what I was searching for), but in some dusty corner of memory letter delivery being effected twice a day, morning and afternoon, somewhere and at some time (certainly in the past!) seems to lurk.

 

[1stvermont]

There is one specific term near the beginning of chapter 1 "An Unexpected Party", after Bilbo had just greeted Gandalf (not yet knowing who he was):

"Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, ..."

I may be overstating this (Wikipedia has not yielded what I was searching for), but in some dusty corner of memory letter delivery being effected twice a day, morning and afternoon, somewhere and at some time (certainly in the past!) seems to lurk.

Nice spot and I do think you are on to something. I was told once by a customer mail was delivered twice a day perhaps 50-70 years back here in the US.

There is one specific term near the beginning of chapter 1 "An Unexpected Party", after Bilbo had just greeted Gandalf (not yet knowing who he was):

"Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, ..."

I may be overstating this (Wikipedia has not yielded what I was searching for), but in some dusty corner of memory letter delivery being effected twice a day, morning and afternoon, somewhere and at some time (certainly in the past!) seems to lurk.

I was just thinking, he had his morning letters but did he have to go to the Hobbiton post office to get them? or were they delivered to bag end?

 

[Olorgando]

I can well imagine that frequency of deliveries depended (and depends) on several factors:

Volume of mail. This I don't need to imagine, as in every country I know of that broke up what used to be a state monopoly of mail services, the private sector vultures immediately descended of the high-volume, city-centered company mail. Pure cherry-picking, as is their wont.

Distance of delivery. Again, the private-sector vultures pounced on the high-population-density cities where distances are short. Small towns, let alone hamlets and isolated farms, would probably be forced to pick up their mail at centers located for the convenience of the vultures.

Priority. I just recently had something that I brought to our central post office for special registered mail. Cost about 8 times a standard letter - but then the envelope was oversized, and very probably also exceeded the weight limit of the standard letter. But special registered definitely has a premium surcharge.

And at least as far as company-internal paper mail goes (which hadn't gone down that significantly despite decades-long blab about the "paperless office"), at least up to 30 April 2017, my last working day at the company, that was delivered twice a day - at least.

There was a joke (likely with some justification) within the company at some time that if you were in a hurry with something company-internal - better drop it off in a mailbox just outside company premises, or better at a central post office. The possible justification might derive from a priority directive for the internal postal system to handle stuff coming from external with higher priority than obvious company-internal stuff.

The company-internal stuff was easily recognizable by being in multi-use envelopes usually exceeding standard letter sheet size (DIN A4 in Germany) with I'd guess 40 address fields total, 20 on each side (5 lines by 4 columns. There were envelopes half that size, too). Few envelopes actually managed to reach the status of all 40 address field being filled, due to wear and tear reasons, which were (and probably still are) legion.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

My impression is that they were delivered.

I recall reading, many years ago, one or another author of a Tolkien study explaining that, at the time The Hobbit was written, mail in England was indeed delivered twice a day.

A similar situation arises when I tell a story about my father reading something out of the "evening paper".

Come to think of it, there must by now be several generations of American children who have had to have explanations given to them why there are stores called "7-11".

 

[grendel]

There is one specific term near the beginning of chapter 1 "An Unexpected Party", after Bilbo had just greeted Gandalf (not yet knowing who he was):

"Then he took out his morning letters, and began to read, ..."

I may be overstating this (Wikipedia has not yielded what I was searching for), but in some dusty corner of memory letter delivery being effected twice a day, morning and afternoon, somewhere and at some time (certainly in the past!) seems to lurk.

I can remember when many cities had a morning and evening newspaper edition. Maybe some of you younger folks should Google what a "newspaper" is. 😕

As to the topic at hand, I remember a line from Gandalf when he was trying to nudge Frodo into action:

" 'Don't be absurd!' said Gandalf. 'I am not warning you against leaving an address at the post office!' "

 

[Halasían]

My impression is that they were delivered.

I recall reading, many years ago, one or another author of a Tolkien study explaining that, at the time The Hobbit was written, mail in England was indeed delivered twice a day.

A similar situation arises when I tell a story about my father reading something out of the "evening paper".

Come to think of it, there must by now be several generations of American children who have had to have explanations given to them why there are stores called "7-11".

Ah yes... stores were open from 9AM to 9PM, so when Southland Corp. started franchising out convienience stores that were open from 7AM to 11PM, it was a big deal! And there were those 10¢ Slurpees.

I found Will Whitfoot and asked if he is still doing the whole Shire Post address thing anymore. He has returned to making licensed Middle Earth coinage.

 

[Olorgando]

A similar situation arises when I tell a story about my father reading something out of the "evening paper".

There still is a newspaper called "Abendzeitung" in Munich, as well as one called "Abendblatt" in Hamburg.
The Munich one is definitely in the category "boulevard press" or "yellow press", and firmly dedicated to Munich-area gossip.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

stores were open from 9AM to 9PM,

As a matter of fact, many stores where I grew up closed earlier than that -- 5 or 6 PM, IIRC, including grocery stores, so if you wanted food beyond burger and fries, it was the place to go. (And yes, that also means in.the case of Midnight Munchies. 😂 )

I need to look for those coins!

 

[Halasían]

I just remembered Mitz's 'Tom Boy IGA, the small grocery that was by our house in the 60's. They were open 9-9, where the larger Market Basket store was only open 9-6. Also, the beer and wine was locked up on Sunday as well as the store butcher.

Shire Post Middle Earth Coins:
The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Those are really nice! I guess the prices have risen, now that they're "officially licensed".

BTW, there were, of course, various competitors to 7 - 11. This regional chain operated in the Southeast:

And one way they competed in the early 70's was by carrying bongs, and other "smoking implements", when 7-11 wouldn't.

In my town, we took.to calling them "U Toke 'em." 😁

 

[Olorgando]

The 24/7 bit is handled by gas stations in Germany. Though currently, the one I usually go to has taken to shutting down at 9 PM, also due to the fact that Covid-numbers in Bavaria have risen above the 9 PM curfew threshold in all but three of Bavaria's 96 districts. What that gas station also does is handle package deliveries for our postal system, as do several supermarket chains. In the place my wife and I do most of our shopping, the same chain has separate buildings for beverages and "the rest" (the latter also has a limited selection of beverages, but only single-bottle stuff, no crates). The postal outlet is in the beverages building.

 

[1stvermont]

My impression is that they were delivered.

I recall reading, many years ago, one or another author of a Tolkien study explaining that, at the time The Hobbit was written, mail in England was indeed delivered twice a day.

A similar situation arises when I tell a story about my father reading something out of the "evening paper".

Come to think of it, there must by now be several generations of American children who have had to have explanations given to them why there are stores called "7-11".

I think you are correct. I did a quick google of victorian period England mail system and it seems mail was delivered to the local post office but i am not sure if it all went to houses. It seemed many came and picked it up as well.

 

[Ealdwyn]

I recall reading, many years ago, one or another author of a Tolkien study explaining that, at the time The Hobbit was written, mail in England was indeed delivered twice a day.

Not even that long ago. Mail was delivered twice a day in the UK until about 20 years ago.

 

[Olorgando]

Not even that long ago. Mail was delivered twice a day in the UK until about 20 years ago.

Was this twice-a-day run-of-the-mill postage? Or was one of the occasions for higher-priority stuff, like express letters, registered letters, anything that required a surcharge for handling? I have few if any memories of telegrams, but I think those might be (have-been) single-carried, as they basically had something like "red alert" status.

 

[Ealdwyn]

Was this twice-a-day run-of-the-mill postage? Or was one of the occasions for higher-priority stuff, like express letters, registered letters, anything that required a surcharge for handling? I have few if any memories of telegrams, but I think those might be (have-been) single-carried, as they basically had something like "red alert" status.

Yes, run-of-the-mill post, delivered twice a day.
We only have one delivery these days, and it's hard to imagine how it could have been cost-effective to deliver twice a day. But that's what happened.