Our 'Royal Mail' postal service goes all the way back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a 'Master of the Posts'. The Royal Mail service was thrown open for the public to use (those who could afford it!) by 1635. The first mail coach ran in 1784 between London and Bristol. The first pre-paid adhesive postage stamp - the Penny Black - came in 1840. The first pillar boxes were installed across the country in 1853, bearing the royal cipher of the monarch at the time. It was always a public service, a government department until 1969 when it became a statutory corporation: The Post Office. Since then, various bits of the business have been hived off and privatised. It is required by law to provide 'a universal service' whereby items of a specific size can be posted for a set fee to any location within the UK, six days a week, but even that is these days under threat. Email and competition from private companies means the volume of post is diminishing whilst the cost to the user has risen astronomically. A standard First Class letter will soon cost £1.70 to send and a Second Class stamp will be 87p. 'Large' letters (not that big!) will be £3.15 or £1.55.
I wonder for how much longer we'll be able to pop a birthday card in a post box at the end of the street and know it will be delivered safely, on time and direct to its intended recipient's address? There is talk of restricting deliveries, stopping Saturday mail deliveries, delivering second class letters on alternate days and all manner of other tweaks to try and reduce the business's costs. I note that my own mail often seems 'batched'. I'll get several items all in the same delivery and then none for days.
It's a sad thought that people won't have letters to pass down in the family... no more piles of paper tied with ribbon, to delight a biographer or genealogist. Also a sad thought that our cheery red post boxes might be a dying breed. I'm not sure I've ever consciously noticed one like that in my photo before. Its very plain GR cypher denotes that it was installed in the time of King George V, between 1910 and 1936. I spotted it in Crossflatts. I guess postboxes are a way of dating the housing developments that they're found in too, so they have a certain value beyond their primary purpose.
I think it’s quite sad that people don’t write letters any more. Letter writing was always one of my favourite pastimes when I was young! The internet has a lot to answer for!
ReplyDeleteI think we have a few Victorian and GR wall postboxes in this area, although I do believe there’s one free standing,VR pillar box in the town. Would be a shame to see them disappear!
For my recent birthday, I was happy to receive many cards, some of them from (blogging) friends and family in England. In return, I send birthday and Christmas cards, but very few other letters admittedly.
ReplyDeleteHere in Germany, it‘s been years that no regular mail is delivered on Mondays. Also, postage increases year after year, and post offices have been closing down allover. Nowadays, people go to post their letters and parcels at a gardener‘s, a stationery shop or elsewhere.
We have mail delivery Monday to Friday and many of the post offices have closed and have been replaced by small outlets in other stores like pharmacies.
ReplyDeleteThis service is under threat in the USA too. (One of many.)
ReplyDeleteDespite the increasing postage costs here in the U.S. as well, I will not abandon sending birthday cards, letters and other "just because" messages. However, I will most likely reduce the holiday card mailings. Getting a letter is very special especially to older people, but also to youngsters and everyone in between.
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