For a piece of fiction I'm writing set at Oxford, I just need to verify the setup of the pigeon post in the porters' lodges, or more specifically, at Hertford
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I've never seen locked pidges; it's normally just a wall of rectangular shelves, each labelled with the surname of the student above or below. Sometimes you have to share your pidge with someone, if the college is short of space. Each pidge might be big enough for a normal-sized hardback to stand up in it, or lie lengthwise on its longest edge. Not wide enough for the book to lie flat, however. Hope you can picture what I mean!
The pidge post is like a mini postal system in its functioning. There are deliverymen/women who work for the university who visit each college's lodge twice (or maybe more) a day, on bikes. They would also do the rounds of the departments and admin offices. They pick up the internal mail, and it presumably goes to a central sorting location before being redirected. It might take a day or two for the mail to reach its destination.
First off, yes, I can picture exactly what you mean! And your description has given me a very precise picture of what they look like.
And thank you for such a complete explanation of how the whole pigeon post system actually functions. I really was curious-- had this very silly mental image of the porters scurrying around from lodge to lodge!
Hertford-specific question, if you can answer it: I assume that all students in the college get their letters and messages in the porter's lodge? Does that include students living in the graduate centre at Folly Bridge? (not a question for my story-- this one's more personal, as my daughter has just arrived at Hertford for a study-abroad program for the next two terms.)
I can't speak for Hertford, but perhaps someone else can.
I would imagine that all mail would go to Hertford itself, and that any students living in the graduate centre or 'living out' (flatting / renting privately) would have to go in to collect their mail. That's how my college works anyway.
If you addressed mail to her at the Folly Bridge building directly, however, then it might possibly get delivered there by the normal postal service. You'd need the street number and postcode, but she could get that from the porters I would think.
I spent an enjoyable evening/early morning at that building one May Morning: people stay up all night to then go see a choir sing at the top of Magdalen Tower at 6am on the 1st of May. It's a real experience - one of Oxford's wacky traditions!
Thank you for this! I'll definitely tell her about this tradition, which-- wackiness aside!-- sounds absolutely wonderful. Such traditions are what make a university what it is, and it seems Oxford has no shortage of them!
If she can simply get her mail at the porter's lodge, then there's no need to make complications, I don't think. I'd rather leave things as they are. But thank you for the suggestion. :-)
It's generally easier to send mail to the porters' lodge, since they can keep an eye on anything large/valuable.
Oxford's "real" postal service is at times slightly unreliable, and it seems it always has been - the pidge post system is a relic of the times when the colleges operated Royal Mail style (a local service just for the city and nearby environs) to combat this. There were special post boxes, and each college even produced its own stamps. (We had an alum give a talk on this recently at an event I ran) Nowadays the service is free and is, as deepbluemermaid points out, run by the University Messenger service (and their bikes) and runs just between the colleges and departments.
Re. pigeon holes themselves, the size varies by college, as does whether you have a pidge to yourself or share with someone else. Shared ones are generally big enough to (theoretically) house a real pigeon!
Sorry, I'm a staff member, so I tend to consider Admin offices as coming under "departments"! I didn't know about Begbroke and Warneford though. I suppose it does kinda makes sense (and those probably don't go by bike)
By "real" post I meant the Royal Mail, and by "Royal mail style" I meant that anyone could buy stamps and that there were physical specialised pillar boxes for taking the mail. I heartily agree that the internal system is far superior to the wildcat strikes of the Royal Mail though.
The chap who spoke to us about stamps and the University postal service (I should point out that I didn't book him, that was done by a colleague of mine) said that the law had been rescinded earlier than a few years ago, at least the bit about stamps and things... I wish I could remember more of what he said, but unfortunately none of our table were rivetted by the topic of philately, and I was distracted by alumni placing bets on which of the 1940's generation would fall asleep first! (But shhh, I didn't tell you that!)
This is fascinating stuff, and merely adds more fodder to the romantic, quirky lore attaching to the university, from the perspective of this American outsider. Thanks for sharing this!
Wonderful background information, thank you. As for what the Hertford pidges are like-- yes, I'll be sure to ask her if she's sharing or not (if I ever hear from her! She seems to have dropped off the face of the earth!), though other oxonians have been kind enough to let me know that the boxes are open.
The (undergrad) pidges at Hertford are indeed all in alphabetical order in the porter's lodge, and those living in the offsite bits would go to the lodge to check their post anyway. I can't confirm anything about the graduate system, other than that there was a single (much larger) pidge in the lodge for all this, that then got taken elsewhere
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Grad student mail goes to the MCR buy the MCR mail officer ( a student), collected from the lodge and carried over to put in the pigeons there. The room is just off the Waugh Room below the MCR common room (Waugh as in Evelyn Waugh, named about 2005).
The pigeon holes in the annexs where pretty much never used, and probably where just labeled alphebetically.
Thank you. Actually my daughter is not a grad student. She's just being housed in the graduate centre along with the other Americans in this particular group who've just come over for their study-abroad semester (which encompasses two terms.) So although I had pretty much assumed that, like other undergrads, her mail would be delivered to the porter's lodge, there might be an exception as she's going to be living a fair walk away from Hertford itself. (at least it looks like a fair walk on the map!)
The pidge post is like a mini postal system in its functioning. There are deliverymen/women who work for the university who visit each college's lodge twice (or maybe more) a day, on bikes. They would also do the rounds of the departments and admin offices. They pick up the internal mail, and it presumably goes to a central sorting location before being redirected. It might take a day or two for the mail to reach its destination.
Hope that helps!
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And thank you for such a complete explanation of how the whole pigeon post system actually functions. I really was curious-- had this very silly mental image of the porters scurrying around from lodge to lodge!
Hertford-specific question, if you can answer it: I assume that all students in the college get their letters and messages in the porter's lodge? Does that include students living in the graduate centre at Folly Bridge? (not a question for my story-- this one's more personal, as my daughter has just arrived at Hertford for a study-abroad program for the next two terms.)
Thanks once again!
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I would imagine that all mail would go to Hertford itself, and that any students living in the graduate centre or 'living out' (flatting / renting privately) would have to go in to collect their mail. That's how my college works anyway.
If you addressed mail to her at the Folly Bridge building directly, however, then it might possibly get delivered there by the normal postal service. You'd need the street number and postcode, but she could get that from the porters I would think.
I spent an enjoyable evening/early morning at that building one May Morning: people stay up all night to then go see a choir sing at the top of Magdalen Tower at 6am on the 1st of May. It's a real experience - one of Oxford's wacky traditions!
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If she can simply get her mail at the porter's lodge, then there's no need to make complications, I don't think. I'd rather leave things as they are. But thank you for the suggestion. :-)
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Oxford's "real" postal service is at times slightly unreliable, and it seems it always has been - the pidge post system is a relic of the times when the colleges operated Royal Mail style (a local service just for the city and nearby environs) to combat this. There were special post boxes, and each college even produced its own stamps. (We had an alum give a talk on this recently at an event I ran)
Nowadays the service is free and is, as deepbluemermaid points out, run by the University Messenger service (and their bikes) and runs just between the colleges and departments.
Re. pigeon holes themselves, the size varies by college, as does whether you have a pidge to yourself or share with someone else. Shared ones are generally big enough to (theoretically) house a real pigeon!
Reply
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I didn't know about Begbroke and Warneford though. I suppose it does kinda makes sense (and those probably don't go by bike)
By "real" post I meant the Royal Mail, and by "Royal mail style" I meant that anyone could buy stamps and that there were physical specialised pillar boxes for taking the mail. I heartily agree that the internal system is far superior to the wildcat strikes of the Royal Mail though.
The chap who spoke to us about stamps and the University postal service (I should point out that I didn't book him, that was done by a colleague of mine) said that the law had been rescinded earlier than a few years ago, at least the bit about stamps and things... I wish I could remember more of what he said, but unfortunately none of our table were rivetted by the topic of philately, and I was distracted by alumni placing bets on which of the 1940's generation would fall asleep first! (But shhh, I didn't tell you that!)
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Thanks so much!
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Thanks for all this. Wonderfully detailed. I appreciate it! :-)
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The pigeon holes in the annexs where pretty much never used, and probably where just labeled alphebetically.
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