Mails to Ireland: Difference between revisions

The history of letter mail goes back a long way. The Ancient Egyptians had a courier service for the distribution of official written papyrus documents circa 2,400BC. Later it was probably the Chinese who devised a post house relay system. This was refined and adapted by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantium's and others, including in America the Aztec and Inca civilizations. The Romans developed the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus_publicus Cursus Publicus], the most highly developed postal system of ancient times. The speed at which the despatch riders rode, using a system of staging posts where they changed horses, was not rivalled in Europe until the 19th century.

 

===Tudor Post===

 

The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when King Henry VIII established a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Tuke Master of the Posts]", a position that was renamed "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmaster_General Postmaster General]" in 1710. Taking mail to and from Ireland started in Tudor times and a weekly service by horse riders was established in October 1572 during the reign of Elizabeth I between London, and Liverpool, Via Chester, changing to Holyhead by 1576 to give a shorter sea crossing, although this did mean having to cross the sometimes treacherous Menai Strait. This weekly post was usually sufficient but it later operated on three days a week, with urgent messages carried by civil servants between London and Dublin.

 

When the first local stage coach ran is not known but in 1637 there was a coach service linking Holywell with Chester, Nantwich and Birmingham. Twenty years later in 1657 (some records state 1653) there was the first notification of a stage coach between London and Chester taking 4 days. This proved to be optimistic for the journey time was increased first to 5 days and later to 6 days. This can surely at least help explain why nobody without a very pressing need travelled very far in those days. This service was later extended to run to Holyhead. Although not designated as mail coaches it is likely that some urgent items were illegally carried.

 

In 1653 Parliament set aside all previous grants for postal services, and contracts were let for the inland and foreign mails to [https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/pp1007-1013 John Manley] who was given a monopoly on the postal service. This was an Act of Parliament in 1657 had established the Government monopoly of the carriage of mails and the position of Postmaster General was created. By the following year there was a daily coach service to London, departing from the [https://chesterwalls.info/whitelionexchange.html White Lion Inn] and picking up at the Yacht Inn.

 

===John Palmer===

 

It was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Palmer_(postal_innovator) John Palmer] of Bath (1742 -1818) who is reputed to have introduced the coach or chaise to carry the mail after realising how vulnerable the post boys were on horseback and his idea was to form the catalyst of the postal service we have today. He initially met with resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The coach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later. It was a success and most of the doubters were won over. In 1785 Palmer introduced the first mail coach from London via Chester to Holyhead. The next year the Post Office agreed to assume responsibility for its running and thus legalised the carrying of mail by authorised stage coaches.

 

The completion of this road transformed the journey between London and Holyhead. The jewel in the crown was his daring suspension bridge over the Menai Strait, but the route includes many other fine examples of civil engineering as it passes through breathtaking mountain scenery in North Wales. He insisted on solid foundations for his new road, and in 2000 an [https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/RR135_Thomas_Telfords_Holyhead_Road.pdf archaeological study] by Cadw (Wales’ historic monuments agency) found that circa 40% of the original remained, beneath and beside the modern road. He also ensured that the horses drawing the coaches faced no gradient steeper than 1 in 20. Telford's improvements to the Shrewsbury-Holyhead road were largely complete by 1818, although the Menai Suspension Bridge was not completed until 1826. Until Telford’s suspension bridges were completed over the river estuary at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conwy_Suspension_Bridge Conwy] and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menai_Suspension_Bridge Menai Straits] there were hazards in crossing these two stretches of water. In 1807, for example, a ferry crossing the River Conwy sank killing all but two passengers. Two weeks later another boat capsized trying to cross from Bangor to Anglesey with the loss of 14 lives. The worst case was in 1785, when a boat carrying 55 people went aground on a sandbank on the south side of the Menai Strait. As they tried to release the boat, it began to fill with water. Rescuers in Caernarfon heard of the crisis, but with the strong wind and the night closing in, and the danger of itself running aground, the lifeboat did not manage to reach the stricken boat. Only one person survived. When Telford’s new road through North Wales was completed Chester ceased to be a major hub on the Irish Mail route and activities centred round the White Lion Inn in Northgate Street declined but did not cease.

 

In 1820 a Royal Mail Coach departed from Holyhead every afternoon at 2pm and was due to arrive in Chester at about 4am the next morning. Another mail coach departed every afternoon at 4:30pm for London by way of Capel Curig, Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Daventry and St Albans and arrived two mornings later at about 6:30am. These mail coaches were the fastest on the route but anybody making such a journey would have needed a lot of stamina and fortitude. There was also a daily Chester to Holyhead Royal Mail coach and in 1830 it departed from Chester at 7-45pm and reached Holyhead the next morning at 7-00am. A Royal Mail Steam Packet sailed from here at 7-30pm, weather permitting, and arrived in Dublin at 4:00am.

The arrival of the railways soon had people demanding a rail route from London to the west coast of Britain and a connecting ferry to Ireland. The last Royal Mail stagecoach service from Chester to London was in 1839.

The first mails to Ireland by rail took place on 24-01-1839 from London via the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_and_Birmingham_Railway London and Birmingham Railway], the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Junction_Railway Grand Junction Railway] to Newton (le Willows) and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway Liverpool and Manchester Railway]. They were then taken by an Admiralty packet boat to Kingstown, (present day Dun Laoghaire) the overall journey taking about 24 hours.

 

 

It was the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railways_(Conveyance_of_Mails)_Act_1838 1838 Railway Conveyance of Mails by Rail Act] that required all railway companies, those already built and those not yet built, to carry mail at a standardised rate. The Act obliged the railway companies to carry mail by ordinary or special trains, day or night, as required by the Postmaster General. Special vehicles were to be supplied by the railways for the sole purpose of carrying mails and, if required, for sorting of letters during the journey. This was one of the first occasions when the government intervened in the running of the railways. It was only the payment the railway companies were to receive for doing this that was open to negotiation.

The committee of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_and_Holyhead_Railway Chester and Holyhead Railway] met on 21-07-1848 to arrange the opening of the its railway across Anglesey. The secretary reported that a letter had been received from the Post Office informing the Chester and Holyhead Railway that the Night Mail from Euston on 31-07-will go by way of the Holyhead Railway. The committee was informed that Llanfair would operate as a temporary station to serve omnibuses between there and Bangor via the Menai Suspension Bridge and getting a grand view of the nearly complete Britannia Tubular Bridge on the way. Mail would also be transported this way by luggage vans.

 

The Uniform Penny Post was introduced on 10 January 1840 whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland was pre-paid by the sender. A few months later, to certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender could affix the first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black that was available for use from 6 May the same year. As Britain was the first country to issue prepaid postage stamps, British stamps are the only ones that do not bear the name of the country of issue on them.

 

Circa 1888 the first rudimentary Dining Cars were provided for First Class passengers only and meals had to be booked before joining the train and passengers had to remain in the same coach for the entire journey. Restaurant Cars where food could be cooked en-route appeared in 1895 and breakfast and lunch were provided on the Up service from Holyhead and tea on the down service from London.

 

The introduction of the vacuum brake in 1882 (following the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armagh_rail_disaster Armagh rail disaster]) and 8 wheeled bogie carriages in 1893 also helped improve the service. Directly connected with the speedy carriage of mail was the introduction of the first [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_trough water troughs] in the world, installed near Colwyn Bay ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochdre,_Conwy Mochdre & Pabo]) in 1859 and these allowed the locomotives to replenish the water supply in their tenders whilst still running at speed, thus allowing the 84 miles from Chester to Holyhead to be run without stopping. The system was invented by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ramsbottom_(engineer) John Ramsbottom], the locomotive superintendent of the LNWR. In 1871 these troughs were moved to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aber_railway_station_(Gwynedd) Aber] and two other sets of troughs were installed west of Prestatyn and south-east of Flint. They remained in use until the demise of regular steam workings in the early 1960’s. There was also a set (one for each line) at Christleton that were unusual in that they were partially inside the tunnels

At Chester there was a fenced off dedicated pathway from the new sorting office to the station and this can still be seen today. I believe that initial thoughts were for a bridge over Brook Street Bridge to the station, similar to those that existed at Shrewsbury and Bristol Temple Meads.

 

 

 

===Accidents===

2016 was the 500th anniversary of the founding of Royal Mail and special stamps were issued.

 

 

Whilst looking for some pictures to accompany this talk I discovered that the Wabash Manufacturing Company of Indiana made a hand car during the early 1900s. It was a four-wheeled vehicle propelled by pumping the handlebar and steered with the feet on the front wheels. In the USA it is colloquially known as an “Irish Mail”.

There are, I stress, other theories as how this came about but this picture just seemed fitting to bring this talk a a conclusion.

 

 

==Sources and Links==