STAMP IT

A History

An interesting and informative timeline, compiled by the Telegraph, displaying the history of the British postal service.

The General Post Office

1516 Henry VII established a “Master of the Posts”, a position which evolved into the office of the Postmaster General.

1635 Charles I made the postal service available to the public, with the cost of postage being paid by the recipient.

1654 Oliver Cromwell granted a monopoly over the mail delivery service in England to the “Office of Postage”.

1657 Fixed postal rates were introduced.

1660 Charles II established the General Post Office.

1661 The postage date stamp was first used, and the first Postmaster General was appointed.

1784 The first mail coach was introduced between Bristol and London. Early mail coaches were similar to ordinary family carriages but bore the Post Office livery.

1793 Uniformed post men hit the streets for the first time.

1830 The first mail train from Liverpool to Manchester Railway made its first deliveries.

1837 Rowland Hill, a schoolmaster from Birmingham, invented the adhesive postage stamp – an act for which he was knighted.

1838 The Post Office Money order system introduced.

1840 The first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, was released nationally, and the Uniform Penny Post, by which letters could be sent for one penny, was established.

1852 The first Post Office pillar box was erected in Jersey.

1853 The first post boxes were erected in mainland Britain.

1857 The first wall boxes were installed Shrewsbury and Market Drayton.

1870 The Post Office launched its telegraph service. The same year the Post Office Act banned sending of “indecent or obscene” literature; introduced the ½d rate for postcards, and provided for the issue of newspaper wrappers. The first postcards were also issued.

1880 Postmen began to use bicycles to deliver the mail.

1881 The Postal order was introduced.

1883 The Parcel post began.

1912 The Post Office opened its national telephone service.

1968 Second class stamps were introduced and the National Giro Bank opened.

1969 Under the Post Office Act of 1969, the General Post Office changed from a government department to a nationalised industry.

1971 Postal services in Great Britain were suspended for two months between January and March as the result of a national postal strike over pay.

1974 The system of postcodes was rolled out across Britain.

1977 The Telegram service was abolished.

1981 The Telecommunications arm of the postal service split off to form British Telecom. The remainder of the business is renamed as the "Post Office".

1986 The letter delivery, parcel delivery and post office arms of the mail service was split into three separate businesses under the name Post Office Group.

1988 Postal workers held their first national strike for 17 years over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East.

1990 Girobank was sold to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society and the Royal Mail Parcels business was rebranded as Parcelforce.

2001 The Post Office Group is renamed Consignia in a massive, but short-lived, rebranding exercise which cost £2 million.

2002 15-months after it was renamed Consignia, the postal service isrenamed the Royal Mail. John Roberts, chief executive, announced his departure from the group after announcing annual losses of £1.1bn.

2004 Deliveries reduced to once-daily.

2005 Mail Trains were reintroduced on some lines.

2006 Royal Mail lost its monopoly on the postal service when the regulator, PostComm, opened up the market three years ahead of the rest of Europe. Competitors can carry mail and pass it to Royal Mail for delivery. Pricing in Proportion (Pip) is also introduced for first and second class inland mail.

2006 Online postage allowed Royal Mail customers to pay for postage on the internet, without the need to buy traditional stamps.

2007 Official industrial action took place over pay, conditions and pensions and Sunday collections from pillar boxes end. Royal Mail announces plans to close 2500 Post Office branches.

2009 The Communication Workers Union opened a national ballot for industrial action and workers vote to strike over pay and jobs. Lord Mandelson, the Labour business secretary, launched an attempt to part-privatise the Royal Mail. The bid failed after the CWU stirred up a storm of backbench revolt.

2010 The new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition announced its intention to sell off the Royal Mail’s delivery business but retain the Post Office network in public ownership. Delivery bicycles began to be phased out, 130 years after they were first used.