A Great day out

Have you ever had a pang of jealousy? I have, and it is all down to a story told by Philip Hairman who is a member of the Sheffield Philatelic Society . In short here are a few snippets from his written account concerning a A Grand Day Out

On Tuesday, September 2nd 2008 several Machin collectors arranged a trip to Staffordshire where they met Adam Tedstone, Adam was the solicitor for the sale of Machin estate Garmelow Manor. Their first port of call was Cuttlestones Auctioneers where they were shown three items to be auctioned. The first was the original plaster relief mould of the Machin head used to in preparing the Machin pre-decimal stamps. We wrote about this these auctions on this blog last year, here is the link to this post if you missed it.

The second item they came across was the art work that Arnold Machin produced for the 2d pre-decimal definitive stamp. The last item in the Cuttlestone sale was a plaster cast for the obverse of a coin.

This was only the begining of their adventure, Adam then took them to the Machin family home, which was up for sale, Garmelow Manor. We also wrote about this house and posted several pictures of the house and the grounds on this blog. these were donated by L.


Left is a picture of the Victorian letter box at the bottom of the drive at Garmelow.

To continue with Philip's tale:

The house was opened up for them and they wandered round it at leisure! In one of the rooms there was framed original art work for the Machin head stamps. Some of this artwork was reproduced in the prestige booklet celebrating Arnold Machin's life and the 40th Anniversary of the stamps issue. Sitting on one bench was a letter from the Royal Mail informing Arnold that his design for the definitive stamps had been accepted and it was being presented to the Queen. On another shelf was a plaster mould of Prince Charles, perhaps it was to be the replacement on the Machin stamps!



In one display frame was an interesting article from 1956 when Patricia chained Arnold to a lamp post. The ornate Victorian lamp post was due to be pulled down and Arnold wanted to make a protest against its removal. The event was recorded in the daily papers. This is also mentioned in a link from the Stoke -upon -Trent website that Larry mentioned some time back.


Above the lake and boathouse at Garmelow Manor. You can read the complete story of Philips visit and see some of the pictures he took here. Go to page 4