The Gate House

Nowadays the Gate House is often referred to as the Pink House and is one long residence.  This series of pictures show that, like many houses of its period, it was a several cottages which have been merges into one.

To be honest dating this photograph has proved to be a head-scratcher.  It's my guess that this is oldest of the set and was taken about 1910.  Looking west along Station the two cottages on the right form the basis what we know as the Gate House today. To the left of these is the Post Office (today called Black Penny cottage) and then you can see the apex of the public house The Royal Oak.

In this second photograph the cottage right-most in the first picture looks to have extended and so my assumption is that it's taken later. Of course it is possible the right-most cottage in the second photo fell down that this is an earlier photograph.  Having said that there were a series of photographs taken in 1931 and so this may be part of them.  But is the childrens' style of clothing of an earlier period?

In this photograph taken in 2020 the former Royal Oak and Post Office buildings look just the same as in the earlier photographers.  Whilst the basic shape of the Gate House is similar in all three, it does seem to have change a lot of the years.

The Post Office

The Dullingham Post Office sat next to The Royal Oak until it closed in...well I'm not sure.  

It's most likely photograph above was taken in the early 1930s as it seems to be part a series of similar pictures taken in the village around this time. The people in the foreground are almost certainly the postmistress Catherine Reeves and her husband Alfred 'Johnnie' Reeves.

Catherine was the daughter of Joseph Chittock who had been the station master for Dullingham for at least 32 years.  The Post Office directory shows he was in place in 1879 and he appears in the 1911 Census in the same role.  Although Joseph retired and had moved away when he died in 1924 he was buried in St Mary's.  

It would appear that Catherine was the driving force of the post office.  Johnnie, on the other hand, was a bit of a character.  In their memoirs both Joe Moore and Dennis Algar mention that Johnnie, when meant to be working, would actually be in The Royal Oak next door.  There would often a beer sitting on the wall outside whilst Johnnie was working indoors in the post office.  It seems public houses were never too distant from Johnnie as he and Catherine appear in the 1911 Census as inn keepers of The Lion Inn in Stoke by Clare.  

The 1939 Register  - a mini census taken at the outbreak of the Second World War - shows that Catherine & Johnnie were still running the post office on 29th September 1939.  Around this time Joe Moore recorded his memories that on entering the post office,

"....a bell on a spring attached to the door rang, it was very loud and seemed to ring on for ever, eventually someone appeared, usually Mrs Reeve. The inside of the shop was not very big and there was a counter on both sides with a door in front, this was always filled with official notices which every one seemed to ignore. The right-hand side was the post office, the counter was bare except for the post office stamp and pad, and a row of six jars of boiled sweets, the selection of sweets was very small and the jars were always kept to one side. Behind on a shelf stood the book of postage stamps, a pair of scales to weigh parcels (and sweets), also other bits and pieces to do with the operating of a post office. There were more official notices pinned on the wall behind which no one could read, as they were so far away and most of the printing was small anyway. Tobacco and cigarettes were also sold over this counter as well. The opposite counter had all sorts of bits and pieces, reels of cotton and thread, tape, combs, paper and envelopes, all manner of every day things needed in the average household. If you required something from this side of the shop, Mrs Reeve disappeared from the post office counter and suddenly appeared again to serve from the goods side."

Joe also mentioned that around this time the Post Office employed two postmen as well, Mr Tom Gentleman who lived in the Brinkley Road, and Mr Jim Pryke who lived in one of the thatched cottages just the other side of the Royal Oak.

For a short while after its closure the post office services moved next door to The Royal Oak.  Unfortunately this clipping is not dated so the closure date is currently unknown.  However the post office building was transformed... 

...into a charming private home (picture taken in February 2023).  Certainly Black Penny Cottage is great name for an ex-post office.  

If you can provide any corrections or updates please leave a comment or send Richard an email.