Mary is a newish member of Castle Bromwich u3a. The short stories below tell the story of her and her late husband's hobby of letterboxing.
Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several websites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes contain a notebook and a rubber stamp, preferably hand carved or custom made. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp in their personal notebook, and leave an impression of their personal signature stamp on the letterbox's "visitors' book" or "logbook" — as proof of having found the box and letting other letterboxers know who has visited. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count". (Letterboxing (hobby) - Wikipedia)
Mary and her late husband, Allan, were on Dartmoor when they came across a group of children at a box on Dartmoor. The children were stamping their books with the stamp they had found in the box. Mary and Allan asked them what they were doing and that’s how they discovered letterboxing and became hooked. They found a further two boxes during that time on Dartmoor. They began traveling to Dartmoor in their motorhome at the weekends to find boxes.
After six months of looking for boxes they decided to start designing and hiding their own for other members to find.
Each letter boxer has their own name and stamp. Anyone can make boxes to hide. Each waterproof box is set up with a stamp, designed by the letter boxer, and a logbook. The letter boxer stamps their own stamp in the logbook. They stamp their own logbook with the stamp they find as their record. Mary would always include a story to go with their boxes and a copy would be placed in the box. Some of Mary’s stories are printed below.
To hide and refind the boxes, they used a grid system. The grid was used with an Ordnance Survey of Dartmoor map. It was placed on the map to pinpoint the exact position of each box. There are specialised letter boxing maps available.
As word spread about letterboxing numbers of members increased to hundreds of people, including people from the US and Europe. Members would meet up in the Spring and Autumn to share finds and to publicise new boxes to find. They would meet in the Plume of Feathers in Princetown until the numbers grew and then they moved to a community building in the village.
This is a small selection of the stamps that Mary and Allan collected over the years
Mary's stories for some of the boxes:
