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Mails to Ireland: Difference between revisions
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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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