The post office in Sanquhar on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, opened for business in 1712 and has been in continuous operation since then. The sign outside the shop says it’s Britain’s oldest post office. It’s more than that: it’s the world’s oldest.
The shop features in Douglas Corrance’s book of pictures he took in the 1970s of Scottish Rural Post Offices. Corrance was at the time working as a photographer for the Scottish tourist board. “The most important element for me is composition,” he tells us.
Corrance became a photographer by accident. At 15 he got a job at a local newspaper in Inverness. His first assignments were to cycle out to football matches, hope that there was a goal in the first half he could photograph, and then cycle back through wind and rain to print it up and catch the first edition.
“After that,” he says, “cities were always wonderful places to me.”
All pictures copyright Douglas Corrance.
Via: Cafe Royal, where you can buy books of Douglas’s work.
Follow Douglas on his Facebook page for more fabulous pictures.
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