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Snippets of News
British Postal Museum and Archive
The BPMA holds a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses seized in the 1920’s from the mail as it was obscene. The store has pillar boxes, machinery, uniforms and transport.
The BPMA has evidence relating to the Great Train Robbery of 1963. A 15 strong gang targeted the TPO Glasgow to London in the early hours of 8th August 1963. The train was halted near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire and the gang fled with £2.6 million, around £40 million at today’s value, after restraining the sorters and coshing the driver, Jack Mills. The name most associated with this crime is Ronnie Biggs, who escaped from jail in 1965, returning to the UK in 2001. The files collection at the BPMA was made by PO Investigation Unit of Royal Mail, and includes trial papers, original items used as evidence, statements and reports on suspected PO insiders, crime photos and a wanted poster. (Courier July and September 2008)
Letter Boxes
The Letter Box Study Group (LBSG) has an archive of photos from the UK and Abroad. They have a database of boxes in the UK and types since 1952. The group was formed in 1976 and has over 800 members. Membership is £12 per annum and there is a quarterly newsletter.
The first roadside boxes came into use 150 years ago and were hexagonal in shape and made of cast iron. They were the brainchild of Anthony Trollope, the Post Office Surveyor and proved popular. Cylindrical boxes came in 1879 to replace the Penfolds. The traditional red colour dates from 1874 for all boxes except Guernsey, which had blue. Wall mounted boxes appeared in 1857 as these were cheaper. Rural boxes were smaller and on a free standing pole. They are marked in English and Welsh in some cases, Post Brenhinol standing for Royal Mail. Some boxes came with a snail warning and boxes are on occasions modified with a flap over the aperture to keep the molluscs out. Square boxes made of sheet steel were not popular both because they rotted and were complex inside for the posties emptying them, making letter retrieval difficult.
The Victorian boxes have been used by many generations and have of course survived two World Wars. (Courier August 2008)
Woodpecker
Getting back to wildlife damaging things, a Preston mail employee has a postbox shaped garden nesting box but has had trouble with a woodpecker. It drilled a hole and ate the eggs of nesting bluetits. They laid eggs lower down but to no avail and so the solution was to clad the box with metal. (Courier July 2008)
Machine Upgrade
The 15 year old MTT and Letter Sorting Machines (LTM’s) will be upgraded to new Intelligent Letter Sorting Machines (iLSM’s) and this will mean sorting capacity increasing from 25,000 items per hour to 36,000. These new machines replace the two others. Testing was due to start in January 2009 with Twickenham being the first location. (Courier August 2008)
Northern Mail
This company based in Cramlington has its own delivery staff team and is introducing a cheaper ‘regional stamp’ and cheaper packet delivery. They are too small to take on Royal Mail but offer a local post. For example 80% of Newcastle City Council mail is for the Newcastle area and there are hospitals and housing associations. They are one of the biggest mailing houses with 100m items a year. The plan is to have a 2nd class stamp valued at 23 pence, for delivery in northeast England and Scotland. They will have 10 -20 delivery staff. Some 99% of the mail they handle is still delivered by Royal Mail. (Courier September 2008)
Parcel Size
It is planned in 2009 to increase parcel sizes for 48 hour delivery from 1.5m to 2.5m in length, 3 to 5 m in width and to a maximum weight of 30kg. This service will be operated by Parcelforce Worldwide. They will also be using a timed next day delivery to utilise the spare capacity in the fleet after midday. (Courier August 2008)
Red Tag
Reg Tag is a new idea to plot the progress of mail through the system. Royal Mail sent out Christmas cards to each customer, 28 million in total. One in fourteen had a Red Tag mark, a barcode with 2 circles either side. for scanning by machines. If this system works it will be offered to business customers for making mail progress checks online. (Courier Nov 2008)
Walk Sequencing Machines
Walk sequencing machines (WSM’s) will go in first at Gatwick Mail Centre. The machines sort letters into exact order for delivery and there will eventually be 500. They can sort 12 walks in 45 minutes, 9,000 items per hour, which saves money and the letters are then added to manually sorted mail in the frames. (Courier October 2008)
Just room here to include a picture of part of the 1st class value from the Rescue at Sea stamps issued on 13th March. The perforations at the top and bottom are unusual as they spell out SOS in Morse code. All stamps in the set had this format.
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