Catalogue description Post Office: Inland mails organisation and circulation: Records

Chronological order within subseries unless otherwise stated.

Pieces are 1 volume unless otherwise stated

Inland mails organisation: the Inland Office and the Circulation Department

A separate domestic postal service originated early in the 17th century when a split developed from the foreign service. By the 1670s the General Letter Office in London comprised an Inland Office, with 43 staff, and a Foreign Office, with only 4 staff. By the end of the decade they were both housed in Lombard Street, as two distinct services with separate staff, although there was a considerable overlapping of work. By the end of the century the staff of the Inland Office greatly increased and the department brought in two-thirds of the GPO's profits.

In the early 19th century three overlapping services existed; the Inland Office, Foreign Office and Twopenny Post Office, each with separate staff. The Inland Office had general charge of the whole postal system for the British Isles, including the mail coaches to and from London. The Foreign Office dealt with mails going to and coming from foreign countries. There was a separate Ship Letter Office and Dead Letter Office. The Bye and Cross Road Letter Office had been absorbed into the Inland Office by this time.

In 1829 a new central office opened in St Martin's le Grand, to house the General or Inland Office, Foreign Office and Twopenny Post Office. All had distinct letter carriers and their own receiving houses. Foreign Office letter carriers were abolished in the early 1830s. In 1844 the Twopenny Post Office was renamed the London District Post Office.

In the mid-19th century there occurred a gradual amalgamation of all divisions connected with circulation of mail. On 6 April 1840 the Foreign Office was consolidated with the Inland Office. By 1850 the Inland Office and London District Post Office were the two departments directly engaged in mail circulation - collecting, sorting, delivering and charging the letters and newspapers in London and its immediate neighbourhood, and in despatching mail to all quarters. The Inland Office was charged with the despatch of mails from London to the provinces or to foreign parts and with the delivery in London of letters received from the country or from abroad. The London District Office was charged with similar duties in respect of the correspondence carried on within London itself and a district around it of 24 miles in diameter, and, sometimes, with the delivery of letters from the Inland Office. This arrangement and duplication of duties meant there was a wastage of manpower. In 1854 proposals were put forward to unite them under one superintendent and consolidate the Dead Letter Office within them. The establishment of the Circulation Department was authorised by the Postmaster General in October 1854.

By 1870 the Circulation Department comprised various branches including the Surveyor and Controllers Office, the Inland, Newspaper, TPO, Foreign and Registered Letter branches, East Central Office and Lombard Street branch.

Bye and Cross Roads Office

In 1660 there were 6 main post roads - North Road to Edinburgh; West Road to Plymouth; Chester or Holyhead Road, Roads to Bristol, Dover and Norwich. Other places were served by branch posts working out of the main roads. Letters between intermediate towns on the main roads were carried by bye-posts. There were no cross posts connecting places on different main roads; the post had to pass through London which caused much delay. By the end of the 17th century a number of cross posts, which did not pass through London, had been established, beginning with a direct post between Bristol and Exeter. The Act of 1711 legalised the cross posts.

In 1720 Ralph Allen was given the contract to farm the Bye and Cross Road posts. He continued in that role for 44 years, until his death, making many important reforms and improvements in the conveyance of letters. Under Ralph Allen the Bye and Cross Road Letter Office was a completely separate part of the postal service. When he died in 1764 it came under the management of the GPO and the Postmasters General. The Bye and Cross Road Letter Office became known as the Bye Letter Office by 1788 and remained a separate department for some time until it became essentially a branch of the Inland Office towards the end of the 18th century. By then its distinctiveness had largely ceased, as the network of routes made the difference between a country letter and a by letter and a cross road largely meaningless.

London Penny Post, Twopenny Post and London District Post

In 1680 William Dockwra, a London merchant, set up a London Penny Post. This official penny post was also known as the London District Post. The Act of 1711 legalised the London Penny Post. An Act of 1801 abolished the London Penny Post, after an existence of 120 years, and replaced it by what became known as the Twopenny Post (still relating to London and its environs only). In 1805 the limits of the Twopenny Post were restricted to the General Post delivery and letters crossing these bounds became a Threepenny Post. (In 1839 it became a penny post again). In 1844 the Twopenny Post Office became officially known as the London District Post Office. This was amalgamated with the Inland Office and Dead Letter Office in 1854, to form the Circulation Department.

Dead and Returned Letters

The Dead Letter Office was established in London in 1784 to deal with dead and missent letters, when the addressee could not be found. Similar offices in Edinburgh and Dublin opened shortly after. In 1813 a Returned Letter Office was organised to return undelivered letters to writers and collect the postage due. Prior to 1813 the only letters returned were those supposed to contain money or items important enough to escape destruction. During the 19th century the department for dealing with undelivered and returned letters was variously named the Dead Letter Office, Dead and Returned Letter Office and Returned Letter Office. In 1854 it became a branch of the newly formed Circulation Department. By the early 20th century the work of headquarters offices was devolved to separate Returned Letter Offices set up in major towns in Britain.

Mid 19th century revision of rural posts in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland

Until the mid-19th century the British Post Office was cautious in setting up deliveries in rural districts, only doing so when more than 100 letters a week were received in the village. A major expansion of rural posts throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland took place during the 1850s, under the auspices of Rowland Hill, Secretary to the Postmaster General. Under the revision plan some 700 new posts were set up by 1850, for delivering over 7,500,000 letters a year. One of the most active and enthusiastic workers for these extensions was Surveyor Anthony Trollope, who wanted deliveries where most people were found in a rural district, not where the most influential people lived, and worked to do away with the rural letter carrier's practice of charging for letters delivered.

Rural posts were organised in rural districts under town post offices classified as 'post towns'. All rural routes were served by the post town and its branch or sub-offices. Each town post office, managed by a deputy postmaster, belonged to a national District. Each District was administered by a District Surveyor who reported to the Secretary. The Secretary reported to the Postmaster General. There were two types of revision: a 'general' revision of the rural posts under one town; or minor alterations to a rural post, often initiated by a petition from the local inhabitants.