Reports

South Tyneside Meeting - February 2003 "Postal Services" by Morris Chadwick A Report by Margaret Stafford

Morris Chadwick had the good fortune to be our speaker ( I think he thought the flowers and the cake were for him!) and his topic was the history of the postal service. I can't reproduce the overhead sheets here showing some examples form 1549 but I will give you a flavour of his very interesting talk.

Postal services had started in Roman times, with a wax tablet or sealed clay envelopes which of course don't survive as they had to be broken open to reveal the contents! Until the 15th century it was the province of the ruling classes, where information was required about potential invaders or rebels. There was some private post between merchants.

Couriers took a long time, covering 12-20 miles a day so from South Shields to London would have taken between 14-16 days. There were no signposts so local guides had to be used, with the cost of the horse being more expensive than the keep of the courier!

Fast relays of specially appointed horsemen were first set up by Edward 1V in 1482 during war with Scotland, the appointment of a horse or post every 20 miles was repeated in 1484 by Richard 111. By the reign of Elizabeth 1 royal posts were beginning to carry private letters as well as those of the court. In 1574 each post master was ordered to keep at least 3 horses always at hand and be ready to despatch the mail within quarter of an hour of hearing the sound of the post horn . The horn had to be blown 4 times every mile and within one mile of a post town to warn that a fresh horse should be made ready.

The state of the roads in the 16th century was appalling (can I hear you saying, "nothing changes there then "!) with little having been done since the Romans left. One story tells of a glove salesman who fell into a hole in the road and drowned - the man who owned the land - a potter - had tunnelled under the road following a rich seam of clay - in court the potter escaped punishment - the pots were more important than the roads!

The Great North Road was the first major post road in 1677 (though there were 5 earlier smaller ones). There were no links to places such as South Shields or Sunderland - mail was left at Durham and you had to somehow use your intuition, guess it was there and go and collect it!

Then the network was extended to other towns like Sunderland, the post master bid for the position because it could be lucrative. He set up unofficial messengers to collect mail, they collected money from the receiver of the mail, the cost was based on the size of the letter and the recipient had the right to refuse.

Turnpikes were set up to improve the standard of the roads, parishes maintained the roads and landowners the bridges. One such road was Sunderland road from South Shields to Monkwearmouth, running past the door of the very pub we were sitting in!

The post master covered North and South Shields and Newcastle and was paid about £50 pa, the speed of the mail increased to about 7 miles per hour. Inns appeared at staging posts. Mail coaches were faster than stage coaches . By 1788 post towns began to mark the mail with cancellation stamps - Sunderland's was 271 - its distance from London, mail was now paid for by distance and post from Shields to Carlisle for example would go via London!!

Cancellations in red were "to pay" and "paid" in black. Morris had an example of a letter from South Shields to France in 1794. By the 1830s there were complaints about the time it was taking for the mail to arrive (there really is nothing new under the sun is there!) so the date the letter was posted was added.

MPs still had free mail so if you could persuade them to add their name to your envelope you could have free post too. Addresses were very simple - Mr Taylor in Oporto in 1821 received a letter from South Shields indicating he was being sent a quantity of coal to sell and to send port in return.

Postal reform came with Rowland Hill . No longer was the charge set by distance but by weight. Initially a 4d rate for a single sheet was introduced in 1840 and was so successful that it was soon reduced to a penny rate. Collection of the money then became a problem because of the volume so pre payment was introduced later that same year. A competition produced the Penny Black (the blue cost 2d).

Cancellation marks evolved as fraudsters cut unmarked stamps in half to create new ones. Even by 1845 stamp useage wasn't universal. In 1844 all postal towns were given a number, Sunderland's was 761, South Shields was 704. A combined date stamp and obliterator followed - a duplex.

Post men demanded safety money for delivering cards covered in glitter - considered a health hazard! Post offices evolved from little rooms in houses. One of the first was in King St run by 2 sisters in the 1820s. A letter was handed in, marked, paid for and left. post boxes (often just a slit in the shop or house window) allowed mail to be posted at all hours.

Post boxes came along about 1855 in Guernsey. Colours were not uniform - a green Victorian one survives in York for example. There were as many as 7 collections and 5 deliveries a day, allowing someone to send a postcard telling family what time they would be home for tea that same day!

And now of course we have the internet, with remarkable speed, bringing us all together wherever in the world we are. Roland Hill would have been very impressed!!