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Mails to Ireland: Difference between revisions
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A talk given to society by Phil Cook: Thursday 23rd November 2023.
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===
[[File:Gallows Letter England 21 Aug 1598.jpg|450px|thumb|right|The address leaf of an Elizabethan "gallows letter", sent by the Privy Council from London to Chester for sending to the Council of Ireland. Dated 21st of August, 1598 it arrived three days later bearing seals from the towns it had passed through. The gallows, which indicates urgency, is the two-post and cross-bar variety with a short rope
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.
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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.▼
▲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.
▲[[File:PostBoyc1700.jpg|400px|thumb|left|A Post Boy c 1700.]]
The mail was robbed in 1703:
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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.
[[File:earlypostvan.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Early "post van" from the LBR.]]
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.
From
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.
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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.
There are various theories as to who devised the idea of a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_Post_Office Travelling Post Office]. One states that a Nathaniel Wordsell of the L&M who devised a system for collecting and delivering mails without the train stopping. His device consisted of a series of prongs on the side of a coach and on pillars at the lineside. Bags were hung on the pillars and large hooks attached to the coach prongs pulled them off. He tried to sell the idea to the Post Office but they rejected it. A Post Office clerk, John Ramsey, came up with a similar idea. Earlier a Frederick Karstadt had suggested a similar system and had even obtained a provisional patent on the idea and had it tested near Winsford. An iron frame covered by a net was attached to the Travelling Post Office carriage. This opened out to receive a bag suspended from the arm of a standard, or gibbet erected at the side of the railway line. At the same time as a bag was delivered into the net another was dropped.
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.
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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.
[[File:PickingUpColwyn.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Postcard of the mail picking up at Colwyn Bay.]]
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
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