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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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.
I had to share my pidge with one other person at least some years. The slots were large enough that you could normally leave things leaning against the appropriate side to indicate the recipient, but as some colleges had horizontal pigeonholes, as a general rule it was easier to scribble the name on it anyway. As one year leaves and another starts, they get moved around, but they're still sorted alphabetically so mine was always in approximately the same place.
The pigeonholes were also the most reliable way of getting post from outside Oxford - you'd address it to Name, Postal Address of College, and there'd always be someone there to sign for packages, whereas in the offsite blocks, there was nothing more extravagant than a letter box, that wasn't necessarily in the door you'd use to get to your room. Obviously, anyone living out would have a standard postal address, but that didn't apply at Hertford.
Using the system was free of charge for personal use. If you wanted to use it to send termcards to all members of some club/society, you could either pay a few pence per item, or (more common) get a handful of friends at different locations around Oxford to do a few colleges each.
I had to share my pidge with one other person at least some years. The slots were large enough that you could normally leave things leaning against the appropriate side to indicate the recipient, but as some colleges had horizontal pigeonholes, as a general rule it was easier to scribble the name on it anyway. As one year leaves and another starts, they get moved around, but they're still sorted alphabetically so mine was always in approximately the same place.
The pigeonholes were also the most reliable way of getting post from outside Oxford - you'd address it to Name, Postal Address of College, and there'd always be someone there to sign for packages, whereas in the offsite blocks, there was nothing more extravagant than a letter box, that wasn't necessarily in the door you'd use to get to your room. Obviously, anyone living out would have a standard postal address, but that didn't apply at Hertford.
Using the system was free of charge for personal use. If you wanted to use it to send termcards to all members of some club/society, you could either pay a few pence per item, or (more common) get a handful of friends at different locations around Oxford to do a few colleges each.
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Thanks for all this. Wonderfully detailed. I appreciate it! :-)
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