The Royal Mail Carriage

I love letters and letter writing, and handwriting and pens and stationery… I also like steam trains!

I did a craft fair at the Severn Valley Railway this weekend and it was held in the Engine Shed at the station at Highley. My stand had its back agains the carriage that King George travelled in, my chair by its wheels. I set up early and had time to have a wonder around before visitors arrived. My favourite exhibit was the Royal Mail carriage.

I loved standing in the carriage, looking at all the compartments, imagining all the letters being sorted, while the train raced along, noisy, hard to balance, possibly hard to see and concentrate, while moving quickly to get the job done.

There are so many pigeon holes for the different areas that the post was heading to. I guess you would get to know the right spaces just as we get to know which letters are where on a keyboard. I loved being in that space and looking about, especially as the poem ‘Night Mail’ by W H Auden was played. 

It is a poem I love as we used to be read it by one of my Mum’s friends when she babysat us when we were small. I sat at my stall and tried to recall as much of it as I could before looking it up in full that evening. If you want to see the video with the poem as a voiceover you can watch it on YouTube here.