Fred Pickstone (September 2004)
Rowland Hill's introduction of the "penny postage in 1840,resulted in the development of a nationwide service which came to Husthwaite ten or twenty years later. In 1839 the charge for postage was from 6d to 1s 6d according to distance. Mr. Hill, afterwards knighted and awarded a pension of £2,000 a year, advised the government to reduce the postage to a penny on letters between all places in the U.K. He showed the actual cost of carrying a letter was very small and the revenue would increase because a greater number of letters would be carried. Initially, postage of 4d was charged for every half ounce carried, but in 1840 "penny postage" and stamps were introduced.
The 1861 census shows Ann Moncaster (43), widow of Robert, the schoolmaster, being both school and postmistress, when living at The Hobbits. It was not unusual for a village schoolmaster to do this second job. The mail possibly came to the village via the newly opened Husthwaite Gate Station. The first passenger ticket was sold there in 1854 and the station first appeared on the public timetable in November 1857. In 1871 William Taylor, born in Husthwaite, was sub-postmaster, a grocer and cordwainer. His wife, Ann, from Sheriff Hutton, helped him in the last two jobs, as well as looking after 6 boys and a girl, all under 13. No wonder he needed several sources of income! A cordwainer works in cordovan, goatskin leather, originally from Cordoba, but did this really come to the village, from southern Spain? By 1871 Ann Moncaster had married Henry Buckle, living at Holly Bank, but she still owned The Hobbits. Was William her tenant?
George Gibson, born in Ampleforth in 1821, was sub-postmaster from 1881 until he died in 1899. George prospered after coming here in his twenties, as a joumeyman shoemaker, married to Mary (from Coxwold) with sons Joseph and Martin. The family lodged at Orchard House, with Henry Tesseyman, a 61 year old former master- shoemaker, now village schoolmaster, unmarried, and his bachelor brother Robert, a retired shoemaker.
George and Mary had two more sons, before Mary died in January 1866, aged 50. She is buried in the cemetery. By 1861, George is re-married to Catharine, Ampleforth bom and 59 years old. Of George's four sons, only Martin remains at home. He is a bootmaker, but according to the census George no longer makes footwear. Before George died in 1899, a second door was made, in the front of Orchard House, as an entrance to the post office. This has now been bricked up. Catharine succeeded George, as postmistress, until she died in October 1902, aged 81. George and Catharine are buried in the same grave as his first wife.
Martin succeeded Catharine, as village postmaster, until May 1925. He had married Annie, a native of Ireland and 4 years his senior, before his father died. They, too, lived at Orchard House. The Gibsons ran the village postal services for about 50 years.