Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:25 In the 17th century, the King's service of posts, or messengers, was open to the public,
00:31 and a general post office instituted, being placed in the house of Sir Robert Vinyard, in Lombard Street.
00:38 At these windows, letters were received.
00:43 They were sorted into bags for the main post roads, and each bag taken by a post boy.
00:51 The post boys were instructed as follows.
00:55 "The post shall blow his horn so often as he meeteth company, or passeth through any town, or at least thrice in every mile."
01:05 General Post Office, January the 6th, 1782.
01:12 The post boy carrying the chest of mail was attacked a little before Higheat,
01:17 between the five and six milestones, about half past four o'clock, by two men, who broke open the cart and took away a number of bags.
01:25 Important letters were sent by the express extraordinary.
01:30 Here is the express receiving military dispatches.
01:35 The toll gate being shut, he has to waken the gatekeeper with his horn.
01:44 At the next stage, he has to change horses.
01:47 The bridge is broken. He leaps the brook.
01:55 Then, leaving his horse in the snow, he jumps astile and delivers the dispatch.
02:10 [Horn]
02:14 In 1784, John Palmer persuaded the post office to try a new plan for carrying mails, namely by coach.
02:22 Bristol, August the 7th.
02:25 Monday began the new plan for the conveyance of the mail between London, Bath, and this city, by a coach constructed for the purpose.
02:35 London. The Bristol coach which brought the mail to the general post office yesterday morning, was only 12 hours in coming,
02:42 and several of the merchants had their letters delivered to them by 9 o'clock in the morning.
02:46 A hundred years ago, the London postman not only delivered letters, but also collected them.
02:54 They were taken to be sorted to the new general post office.
03:01 A building considered to be more worthy of British commerce, and in regard to architecture, more honourable to British tastes and British opulence.
03:14 The postman brought in the letters in these mail carts.
03:30 [Postman]
03:34 And from here, the mail coaches set out for the country.
03:37 The letters are conveyed by strong and well-guarded coaches, each drawn by four excellent horses.
03:45 The coaches proceed with the utmost regularity, and go between 7 and 8 miles an hour, stoppages included.
03:57 The mails are being dropped and taken in at full speed.
04:01 The postwoman hoists her letter bag up on a hay fork.
04:05 But during the great snowstorm of December 1836, the Christmas mails were delayed all over the country.
04:15 The louth mail stopped by the snow. Assistance in prospect, but not the time to hesitate.
04:22 The letter bag sent forward with the guard in a post chastened four.
04:27 The Birmingham mail fast in the snow. The guard proceeding to London with the letter bags.
04:34 [Train whistle]
04:43 One of the most important events in post office history is the changeover from the road to the railway.
04:50 No time has been lost by the post office authorities in turning to advantageous account the facilities offered by the railways.
04:58 Letters received in the evening are delivered in Manchester and Liverpool the following day.
05:04 This is Roland Hill, who brought in uniform penny postage.
05:11 The public may now procure a stamp for literally one penny, being a small engraving of the Queen's bus,
05:20 on the reverse side of which an adhesive substance is spread, which being moistened causes it to stick to the letter.
05:35 The boxes at the central office close at six. Great exertions for effecting the dispatch of the mails are crowded into the two or three preceding hours,
05:43 during which the inland office presents a scene of extraordinary bustle and activity.
05:48 The large hall is lively and animated beyond description.
05:52 Each of the hundred thousand letters is in the first instance placed with the address uppermost,
05:57 and is then stamped by hand at the rate of 200 per minute.
06:02 The mail is sorted into masses according to the great lines of road at a rate of 30 a minute.
06:06 At the appointed time to the very minute, the work is finished and the bags sealed.
06:11 The bags are taken to the station by omnibus.
06:14 The railway servants immediately carry the large sacks to a huge looking machine, which is the last of a long train of carriages.
06:22 The railway post office is a carriage 16 feet long and is fitted up as a sorting room.
06:29 Letter bags belonging to other stations on the line are taken up by an ingenious contrivance, which is the invention of Mr. Ramsey of the general post office.
06:41 [The sound of a machine.]
06:48 [The sound of a machine.]
07:15 The parcels post originated as an independent company of London carriers.
07:21 But in the 80s it was taken over by the post office and the service extended all over the country.
07:42 Finally, in 1902, motors took the place of horses and the present system of rapid delivery was inaugurated.
07:51 [The sound of a machine.]
08:13 [The sound of a train.]
08:18 [The sound of a train.]
08:26 [The sound of a train.]
08:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]