Lost place names: Engelen
In a poetry album, I once found a little rhyme: In heaven there are angels, on earth there are none, but if there were on earth, you would certainly be one… When I see an imprint of the stamp of Angels, I think of that rhyme again. But Angels actually exists on earth. It was a village near 's-Hertogenbosch.
In 1821, the village of Engelen was part of the municipality of Vlijmen and Engelen. However, after a while, Engelen became an independent municipality. On November 1, 1871, Engelen received an auxiliary post office, belonging to the jurisdiction of the 's-Hertogenbosch post office. The postmaster was only provided with an office name stamp that was issued on the day before the opening of the office.
However, on March 19, 1886, 15 years after the opening, a date stamp was also issued. This was a so-called small round stamp. Furthermore, in April 1897, a new name stamp.
In the stamp book of De Munt, this stamp was printed with the fictitious date June 37, 1937! Such impressions were quite normal in this stamp book. For it concerned only the entry and not the date of issuance. An impression of that date was applied in the stamp book of the State Post and Telecommunications Company. Due to budget cuts, the auxiliary post office was closed: Announcement No. 4746S of April 30, 1924: The auxiliary post, telegraph, and telephone office in Engelen will be replaced, effective May 1, 1924, by a station for the postal, telegraph, and telephone service with telegram delivery. Mail delivery will be handled from 's-Hertogenbosch. The office holder had to surrender his date stamp. This was entered on July 1, 1924. The stamp was destroyed on March 4, 1925.
On April 28, 1928, the station master received a new date stamp, which he was permitted to put into use from May 1, 1928. It was a short bar stamp with serial number 1. On October 1, 1941, a new name stamp was issued, with the addition (NB). In the meantime, the post station had been promoted back to auxiliary post office, still belonging to the jurisdiction of the 's-Hertogenbosch post office.
In connection with the replacement of all short-bar stamps with separate year characters, a new stamp of the cylinder bar type was issued, manufactured by the Braungardt company in Germany. However, in 1971, Engelen was annexed by the city of 's-Hertogenbosch. As a result, the village became a district.
The name Engelen had to disappear from the stamp. That happened in 1973, when the auxiliary post office was closed and replaced by a city post agency: Announcements No. 3 of January 23, 1973: offices, Establishment, etc. On January 1, 1973, the auxiliary post office without delivery in Engelen was replaced by a city post agency, which is designated by the name 's-Hertogenbosch-St. Lambertusstraat. For postal services, the post agency falls under the jurisdiction of the 's-Hertogenbosch post office. Sint Lambertusstraat is a very quiet street with fairly modern houses. Not a shop in sight. Where was this post agency located? I don't know! Do you? 
So the Angels have been replaced by a Saint (Saint Lambertus). It could have been worse.
Geographically speaking, Engelen is admittedly still a village, because (just like Bokhoven) it remains separate from the city of 's-Hertogenbosch. However, when cities annex a village due to municipal reorganizations, they quickly tend to call such a village a district. And because the municipality and the PTT unfortunately failed in the 1970s to assign Engelen (and Bokhoven) their own postcode with a corresponding place name, they are now listed as being 'in' 's-Hertogenbosch for postal addresses. But although the municipality might see it differently, they are very much still villages, and in practice, they are still not located 'in' 's-Hertogenbosch. It is a pity that a municipality can simply 'erase' such a place name for postal purposes. In my opinion, it should actually just still be 'Engelen-Sint Lambertusstraat'.
When I visit a place with a vanished post office, I always try to discover where it stood or might have stood. This is indeed another one of those curious cases where it is apparently no longer visible on site.
The Sint Lambertusstraat post office in Engelen was located at number 2. This post office was staffed by Marietje van Boekel in a building behind the house that is now a garage. Besides being the post office, this was also a shop for painters' supplies. Marietje's husband, Piet van Boekel, was a painter.
After this office closed, the postal history of Engelen is unclear. There was a (sub)post office in the village hall “De Engelenburcht” on the Heuvel, and for a while there was a mobile post office on the Achterstraat. Since May 2000, there has been a postal agency in the supermarket at Dien van Hemertstraat 1.
That is a nice addition, Daan. I do find it a pity, however, that the current agency will have a 's-Hertogenbosch -Van Hemertstraat' stamp, meaning you can no longer see that it is actually located in Engelen. That makes it much harder to trace which places still have a postal branch and which do not (among the few hundred villages that have the name of the neighboring city in their stamp and postal address).
Dear Mr. Janssen,
Only in the last month or two have I started to take an interest in little stamps, shall we say, on postage stamps, cards, and the like. This is due to my interest in my native region: the area between Den Bosch and Oss. You see, I came from the village of Geffen. I collect items, texts, and objects about that place… and have now also started collecting in the field of postage stamps. Limited, because my budget doesn't allow for any escapades. But after forty years in Amsterdam, I now live in Engelen.
I came across your particularly nice stories about Alem and Angels on the net.
There is now a local paper in Engelen-Bokhoven called the Tweeterp. It seems very nice to me to include your story about Engelen in it. I suspect people will read it with pleasure. Is there a possibility of having your Engelen story printed in it? Incidentally, I am not involved with the editorial staff or anything like that, but I assume that the editors will not hesitate for a moment. Think about it. I fear that there will be no compensation on their part. You know that all such activities are pro bono. I look forward to hearing from you.
With greeting,
Adrie van Griensven
After searching for a while, I found the following additions regarding the postal history of Engelen.
In 1978, the post agency moved to the Engelenburcht village hall at Heuvel 18. The entrance on the Heuvel is on the side of the building. At that time, this entrance served as the main entrance to the village hall. Through this entrance, you enter a small hallway where a counter is located on the right. This auxiliary post office was staffed by employees from the post offices in 's-Hertogenbosch. In 1985, this fixed counter was closed, and a mobile post office was established in the parking lot at the corner of Heuvel and Achterstraat. This post office came from Waalwijk and also had a stop at Driekoningenplein in Bokhoven. In 1994, a permanent post agency was once again established at Achterstraat 8, in the IJselstein shop. When the shop on Achterstraat moved to Dien van Hemertstraat 1 in May 2000, the post agency moved with it.
As a follow-up to Adrie van Grinsven's response, I would like to mention that I am working on an article for the Tweeterp.
Dear Mr. van Os,
It is wonderful that you are going to write an article about the postal history of Engelen. I, no, people, look forward to it. Good luck with your research and the writing.
Adrie, of course it is no problem to reproduce the article with attribution to Postzegelblog. If the editors would like to use individual images, please provide an email address where I can send them.