Sheffield Independent – Tuesday 01 March 1938
Swinton’s New Address Held up for Review
Mr Dunn Interviews Postal Authorities
An important decision about the proposed change in the address for Swinton letters was taken yesterday as a result of interview which Mr. Edward Dunn, M.P. for Rother Valley, had at the House of Commons with Sir Walter Womerslev, M.P., the Assistant Postmaster-General.
The whole position will be reviewed by the postal authorities at Leeds, and meanwhile no change will be made.
The trouble from arises from the fact that residents of the Swinton urban district have been notified that as from 21st of March the address for Swinton letters will “Mexborough, Yorkshire,” instead of Swinton, Rotherham, Yorkshire.
Swinton Urban Council take strong exception to the proposal, and they sent a deputation to the Rotherham Postmaster on 11th of February.
“I need hardly say,” Mr Basil C Bower, the Clerk to the Council, wrote to Mr Dunn, “that a good deal of resentment to the changes coming from the inhabitants and the firms in the district are also objecting to the change, as it is considered that Rotherham as a standing in the industrial world where Mexborough has not.”
Mr Dunn duly had his talk with the subcommittee of the Council and went into the whole affair with Sir Walter Womersley.
Told Of Opposition
The result is contained in the following letter to Mr Bauer, Clerk to Swinton Urban Council, written from the House of Commons last night by Mr Dunn:
I have had the good fortune to meet Sir Walter Womersley this afternoon, together with his secretaries, and I have put the objections to the proposed change as enumerated by your Council, ratepayers and industrialists as strongly as I could to him.
I am glad to inform you that has given instructions in my presence to the secretary two secure immediately a report own the whole position from the Leeds region and when he gets the report he will then see me again, and that meanwhile no change of any kind take effect in your district.
I have informed him that you mean business in your opposition to any change; that these are not new proposals as the change has attempted before two occasions; that you are prepared two take referendum of your ratepayers on the matter, and that every industrialist in Swinton not only opposed to the change but is wholeheartedly supporting the Council their objections.
If Move Fails
under the circumstances, if the Assistant Postmaster-General cannot prevent the change-over, the Council will have no alternative but seek an interview in London with the Postmaster- General himself.
I think this is all we could do at the moment and he will see soon as he gets his report from Leeds.— Yours faithfully, Edward Dunn. ‘
The minutes of the interview with Mr Dunn had with the Council representative contains the following statement:
Mr. Creighton: We are expanding; new office are being built, works extended, while Mexborough’s side of the industrial world has gone.
Mr. Bower: People from other parts of England know Sheffield and Rotherham, but do not know Mexborough.
Mr Bower also mentioned in his letter to Mr Dunn: “Mr Wilkinson, one of the subcommittee, asked me to stress that Messrs John Baker and Co Ltd, have their letters collected at Rotherham, placed in postal bag and then forwarded direct to the works at Swinton, as it is considered that the address Rotherham is vital in the steel trade.,”