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This series is comprised of serialised publications produced by, for, or relating to, Post Office staff associations, unions and societies. The publications contain information on all aspects of union and association internal activity and their negotiations with management on wages, recruitment, grading and conditions. They also report on Annual Conferences and convey general staff news, such as appointments and the development and re-structuring of The Post Office and its subsequent effect on workers.

Many of the publication titles have changed, they are listed as a continuous series and details of the change in title is given at the beginning of the series. Details of those that have undergone significant changes are given.

Please note that in some series many of the publications have been numbered incorrectly or inconsistently at publication stage. The volume and issue numbers given in the description are those that appear on the original.

This class relates to the arrangements for circulation of mails in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland between the 18th and 20th centuries. It comprises three major sections: letter copy books of the Inland Office, 1794-1836, order and notice books of the Inland Office and Circulation Department, 1794-1868, and volumes and files relating to the revision of rural posts in the mid-19th century. The rest of the class is made up of a variety of items on the management of inland mails, including a number of London Postal Service order books, records of the Dead Letter Office, Bye and Cross Road Letter Office and Twopenny Post Office. Due to the incorporation of the Foreign Office with the Inland Office in 1840, a number of records in this Class also refer to the circulation of overseas mails, particularly the orders and notices books of the Inland Office and Circulation Office, (14/289-334).

This is an 'artificial' series, as maps have been removed from other POST classes and added to POST 21 in order to group them together by format; in addition, maps from numerous different depositors, both internal and external have been mixed together so that it is difficult to find any strands of original order. It has been possible to impose a loose order on the maps by grouping them together by subject as follows:

circulation maps, county maps, town maps, district maps, postcode maps and overseas mail maps.

The majority of the series consists of maps that were commissioned by the Post Office or maps that have been adapted for use in the daily routine of various post office departments.

It includes Ordnance Survey maps which have been annotated to indicate changes to postal boundaries as well as printed town maps, post office directory maps, road maps and hand drawn sketch maps. The maps have been produced using a variety of different methods including lithography, engraving and printing; many of the maps have ornamental cartouches and many are coloured.

Several of the maps in the collection are black and white copies of originals which have not been retained. Unfortunately it is not possible to discern the significance of lines which were colour coded on the original map.

Many of the maps centre on London and there is a sub-series of maps relating to the different postal districts in London, including maps depicting the official postal districts after they were put in place during the period 1857-1858 (see particularly POST 21/772: a reproduction of a map of the London postal districts produced by Richard Weller in 1858, which gives information on the division process). There is also a set of maps from 1948 showing the routes taken by postmen on their daily rounds in the west end of London, which include buildings damaged by bombs during World War Two.

Other maps include postcode maps for areas in Sheffield, Lincoln, Manchester and London; several nineteenth century District Surveyors' maps, some of which show 'armed and unarmed rides' in the various districts and include letters to Francis Freeling and several maps from 'Atlas Universel' (1757) produced by the Vaugondy family [Father and son], depicting various European postal routes and including ornamental cartouches engraved by the Haussard sisters.

This class comprises reports, papers and correspondence relating to the establishment, development and operation of Britain's Inland Letter Post service, spanning the period from 1635 to 1989. At present, POST 23 is divided into 14 Sub-Series, containing some pieces originally in POST 22. There is a small amount of material that relates to seventeenth and eighteenth century developments (see Sub-Series 1 'Establishment and Introduction of the Inland Letter Post' and Sub-Series 5 'Introduction of the Penny Postage'). However, the majority of the records held in this class relate to developments that occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which was the period in which a great expansion and modernisation of the inland letter service occurred within Britain. For the nineteenth century, there is interesting general information in Sub-Series 2 'Inland Letter Post, General' and, in Sub-Series 3 'Missing Letter Branch Case Papers', there are over 50 files of records created by the Missing Letter Branch, who investigated mail thefts between 1839-1859. The largest group of records within this class for the twentieth century is Sub-Series 8 'Two-Tier Inland Letter Service, Correspondence and Reports' which relates to the substantial changes that occurred from the 1960s that accompanied the introduction of a first class and second class postal service, amongst other changes that further modernised the system. Other than Sub-Series 14 'Seditious, obscene and libellous publications sent through the post' which comprises records for the years 1876-1927, the latter half of this class (Sub-Series 9-13) is filled with reports, business plans and material related to other significant developments that have occurred within Britain's letter post service from the late 1960s to the late 1980s.

This series relates to the introduction and implementation of the registration service, the compulsory registration scheme and compensation for the loss and damage to registered mail.

It also includes items relating to the Recorded Delivery Service and other Special Delivery Services designed for sending valuable items or items required to arrive on a specific date and at a specific time via the postal system.

This POST class consists of volumes containing a précis of, or reference to, every minute submitted to the Postmaster General from the Secretary relating to all aspects of Post Office administration. There are also separate bound indices to the minutes arranged by different subjects. POST 35/1-6 consists of volumes of minutes from the Postmaster General to the Secretary relating to all aspects of Post Office administration.

Much of the actual paperwork referred to in these volumes can be found in the accompanying class POST 30 (England and Wales Minute Papers). For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

The class is divided into four Sub-Series. The date range for almost all of the records in the class is 1792-1921. However, there are three volumes in Sub-Series 3 'Indices to minutes between the Secretary and the Postmaster General' that contain records that cover the period up to 1969 (see POST 35/1699-1701).

The material is arranged in date order within series. All pieces consist of one volume unless otherwise stated.

This series comprises accounts of British packet services and overseas posts, including records of agents and postmasters, packet stations, and packet boats. The accounts cover income, expenditure, salaries, allowances and disbursements.

The Packet Report series (POST 39 and POST 41) comprise reports to the Postmaster General, from the Secretary to the Post Office, on the Packet Boat service and overseas mail arrangements.

POST 41 consists of indexed volumes containing a copy of every report submitted to the Postmaster General (including those which have since been destroyed) and is the only guide to the contents of POST 39 (Packet Service Report Papers). The Postmaster General's decision on each case is also recorded. POST 39 consists of those actual reports which are still in existence, with any enclosures.

In 1811 a parallel series entitled Packet Minutes (POST 29 and POST 34) was created. Cases for the attention of the Postmaster General were sometimes recorded in both series, but at other times in only one of the two series. Upon the cessation of the Report series POST 29 and POST 34 continued alone.

For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

This series consists primarily of 'proof books', that is bound volumes and files containing specimen impressions of new date, machine cancellation or other handstruck stamps (both steel and rubber) for postal use, authorisations and instructions for use, handstamp destruction records and historical summaries of machine cancellations.

These two main collections of proof books have substantial gaps, notably, for steel stamps, for the period after 1821, and, for rubber stamps, after 1831. It is believed that the proof books for these periods were lost in the major fire which occurred in 1957 at the Supplies Department, Mount Pleasant, where these records were once housed. Regrettably, when the surviving volumes in these two collections were rebound in c1960, the original volume numbers were lost, and new artificial numbering sequences were given to the newly-bound volumes. This destroyed the evidence once offered by the original bindings, making it impossible now to determine exactly what has been lost from the original series.

Within this class are volumes and files that contain basic information about established Post Office staff and about the principal Post Office branches in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This class also contains details of Post Office establishments abroad, packet boat services, deceased officers, vacancies and committee reports regarding the Post Office Establishment, amongst much else. There are 24 volumes (POST 59/1-24) covering the period 1691-1798, but the majority of the material consists of lists of salaried officers at various British Establishments for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The class is divided into eight Sub-series, a few of which should be mentioned at the outset. Sub-series 1 is the largest of these and contains the main Establishment books and lists of officers from 1691-1983, published annually from the late eighteenth century (bound copies for this series for the period 1869-1980 can be found in the BPMA search room). Sub-series 3 contains the Establishment books for provincial postal regions across Britain and so is naturally considerable in size, although the period covered for these books tends to be late nineteenth and early twentieth century only. By contrast, Sub-series 4 and 5 contain major and minor Establishment books for the London Postal Region, spanning nearly a 200-year period from 1800. The only series that does not contain lists of basic information (which is the essence of most of the Establishment books) is Sub-series 6, which contains 20 papers and committee reports for the period 1793-1923 that describe changes that have occurred and have been proposed to the Establishment system; a useful starting point for understanding the organisational development of the Establishment structure.

The sort of information included has changed over this 300-year period, but a large proportion of the information found in any particular Establishment book is likely to include an employee's name, their department or location, date of appointment, and yearly salary (or weekly wage). Similarly, the type of employee that has been included in the yearly establishment books has changed over time (and some consideration of the difference between 'established' and 'unestablished' staff will follow), but as a rule of thumb, in the main Establishment books that were published annually (which can be found in Sub-Series 1), it is staff who have been occupied in more senior positions within the Post Office hierarchy who are likely to be found. As a consequence, most of the yearly establishment books within this class will only ever list by name a modest proportion of the entire Post Office workforce for any given year. (It may be helpful for prospective researchers to note that the best starting point in searching for records relating to 'rank and file' employees are the appointments indexes and pensions indexes. A guide to these sources can be downloaded from the BPMA website and a printed version can be found in the BPMA search room, entitled 'Guide to Family History Research'.) POST 59/ 26, 28, 32, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40, 42 and 91 include brief summaries of duties performed by officers. POST 59/ 7, 11, 18 and 20 give complements of Packet Boats.

This POST Class comprises material mainly relating to the design, manufacture and distribution of uniform, but also includes some material relating to discipline within the Post Office.

It includes reports on the manufacture and distribution of uniform, papers relating to the Committee of the Joint Working Party on Uniform and Protective Clothing, registers detailing patterns produced, contract statistics and schedules of entitlement, volumes containing decisions made by the Postmaster General which set precedents for the issue of uniform, correspondence relating to all aspects of uniform including the running of the Stores Department and photographic records of uniform garments with pattern numbers, guides to disciplinary procedures, papers relating to disciplinary cases and correspondence and memoranda relating to other aspects of discipline within the Post Office.

This series consists of reports, memoranda and correspondence outlining training activities in The Post Office and considering the training needs of Post Office staff.

This series relates to the provision of medical care for staff through the appointment of medical officers, the monitoring of sick leave and the establishment of the Post Office Ambulance Corps.

This series consists of Royal Letters Patent to Postmasters General and Receiver Generals giving the sovereign's written authority to perform their duties. The series also contains a letters patent for the office of Court Post. The patents give: name of appointee; dates of appointment; salary and duties. All have their seals missing but the original seal attached.

This Post Class comprises reports, minutes, papers, leaflets and newsletters produced by Post Office Advisory Councils. These were external bodies set up to liaise with users of the Post Office, to monitor and review the performance and activities of the business and advise the Post Office on matters of mutual concern to the customer and the business.

This POST class mainly comprises correspondence, committee and other reports, statistics, staff manuals, and training information for new staff, relating to the organisation, development and operation of the Post Office Supplies Department.

It also includes a collection of material on posting boxes, including information relating to the design, development, positioning, installation, painting and repainting, locks and keys, and indicator and notice plates for pillar boxes.

This series consists of annual reports of the Contracts Department, reports, correspondence and papers relating to the organisation, staffing, functions, policy and review of procedure of the Contracts Department and of contracting functions.

Post Office publications. This series consists of publications produced by the Post Office with the purpose of disseminating news throughout the organisation, and publications intended for the general public. Publications cover annual reports and accounts, the provision of postal services throughout the country, and staff newsletters from across the organisation, lecture notes, philatelic publications, and publications regarding postal history.

This series consists of records relating to the supervision of the General Post Office's financial business, including correspondence relating to authorisation of expenditure, development of services and applications for pensions.

POST 1 is commonly used by researchers investigating their family history. This is because a large proportion of this class consists of documentation relating to pensions and gratuities awarded to individual Post Office employees for the years 1686-1959. Amongst the numerous bound volumes of treasury letters are the pension details of thousands of employees. Additional information is often included such as the officer's name, rank and office, date of birth, career history, last salary, cause of retirement or date of death and a statement of reference. Case statements, reports and correspondence are sometimes included where retirement was on grounds of ill-health or the cause of death under investigation. The names of these individuals can be traced through the pension and gratuity indexes, which can in turn be found in separate POST classes, usually made available on microfilm.

Researchers pursuing their own family history are advised to consult the 'Guide to Family History' which can be found in the Search Room and is available to download online. This guide provides step by step advice on how to trace pension records, as well as appointment records.

The majority of these pension records can be found in Sub-Series 1 'Treasury letters, general correspondence' and Sub-Series 6 'Pensions and gratuities applications and awards' (pp. 1-259 and 271-349 of the POST 1 printed catalogue respectively).

Sub-Series 1 'Treasury letters, general correspondence' accounts for the majority of the material held in POST 1. In addition to pension records, this series comprises a record of communications between the Treasury and Postmaster General concerning the financial management of the inland, foreign and colonial services. This includes Treasury authorisation for expenditure on salaries and allowances; new establishments, buildings, facilities and equipment; extension of postal routes, services and postage rates. Developments in transport and technology, rapid expansion of the GPO and increasing complexity of the Civil Service are reflected in the letter books from the early nineteenth century. Volumes contain correspondence concerning road surveys; conveyance of mails by steam packets and railways; contracts for building work and ship conveyance; extension of telegraphic and telephonic communications; Post Office Savings Bank; Civil Service grades and pay scales.

Many of the letters in Sub-Series 2-5 are helpfully grouped and indexed by subject, such as Sub-Series 4 containing copies of letters authorising expenditure on postal telegraphic and telephone services. However, many of these letters are in fact duplicates of the records found in Sub-Series 1.

This series comprises publications, reports, minutes and correspondence on the establishment, operation and development of the Public Relations Department (PRD) and its predecessors and successors. It also contains records on the communication and marketing activity of the Post Office, as well as advertising, training, and educational material produced by the PRD and other Post Office departments.

This series relates to conveyance of mails within the United Kingdom and Ireland by sea. The majority of records are on the Irish and Scottish packet services, with a few contracts for mail services to the Scilly Isles, Lundy Island and the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, placed at the end of the series.

This series comprises copy letter books relating to administration of the Post Office in Britain and Ireland and, to an extent, overseas.

This series relates to the postal draft system from its inception in 1912 until it ceased in 1969 with the introduction of Girobank services. It comprises correspondence between the Post Office and government departments, committee minutes, reports, and specimens of postal drafts.

This series relates to the transmission of newspapers by post and comprises records relating to the franking privilege of the Clerks of the Road, the transmission of newspapers overseas, and the postage rates of Newspaper Post. The majority of the class consists of published lists of newspapers registered at the Post Office for transmission under the Newspaper Post, (POST 24/21 - 24/72). Also included are items relating to the introduction of a rural newspaper delivery service in the 1970s.

This series contains historical accounts, annual, financial and other reports, letter copy books, minutes and correspondence on the establishment, operation and development of the money order and postal order services. The series also contains records on the prevention and detection of fraud, the use of postal orders as currency in wartime, and information on agreements with other Empire or Commonwealth countries for the sale of British postal or money orders in their territories.

This series comprises material relating to Post Office services supplementary to the core activity of the business. It consists of reports, minutes, correspondence and memoranda relating to the introduction, operation and development of individual Post Office ancillary services, their profit and expenditure, recommended improvements and alterations, and information sheets and guides to the services.

Contains some pieces originally in POST 22.

The Packet Minute series (POST 29 and 34) comprise minutes to the Postmaster General from the Secretary to the Post Office, on the Packet Boat and overseas mails services. It began in 1811, at which date those subjects were transferred from the Postmaster General's Minute series (POST 30 and 35).

POST 29 consists of volumes containing a copy of, or reference to, every minute submitted to the Postmaster General, including those which have since been destroyed. POST 34/1 - 105 are indexed. The Postmaster General's decision on each case is also recorded. POST 29 consists of those actual papers which are still in existence (comprising both the original minute to the Postmaster General and the papers leading up to, and following from, the Secretary's submission). It has been produced in two versions, one numerical and the other alphabetical, i.e., set out under subject headings. When requisitioning papers, both the catalogue reference Nos. and the Minute No. should be quoted, e.g., POST 29/4, Pkt 203B/1314.

For details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

This series comprises 'minuted' papers relating to Ireland for the period 1841 to 1960. 'Minuted' papers were those papers which had been submitted to the Postmaster General for a decision, and then been retained in the Post Office registry. At first, the papers 'minuted' tended only to be the particular case submitted to the Postmaster General but, as time went on, registry staff followed a practice of continuing to add physically to an existing minuted case all other cases on that subject which came to hand. As a result, the minuted papers frequently consist of quite large bundles of files on a common subject spanning many years. The date range of the files is consequently often much earlier or much later than the date suggested by the 'Former Reference' used by the registry staff and, in many cases, the precise dates covered by the files have not yet been listed. The subject of individual files among the minuted papers can be wide-ranging, from the mundane administrative minutiae to policy decisions on developments of critical importance.

This series comprises 'minuted' papers relating to all manner of Post Office matters.

'Minuted' papers were those papers which had been submitted to the Postmaster General for a decision, and then been retained in the Post Office registry. At first, the papers 'minuted' tended only to be the particular case submitted to the Postmaster General but, as time went on, registry staff followed a practice of continuing to add physically to an existing minuted case all other cases on that subject which came to hand. As a result, the minuted papers frequently consist of quite large bundles of files on a common subject spanning many years. The date range of the files is consequently often much earlier or much later than the date suggested by the 'Former Reference' used by the registry staff and, in many cases, the precise dates covered by the files have not yet been listed. The subject of individual files among the minuted papers can be wide-ranging, from the mundane administrative minutiae to policy decisions on developments of critical importance.

This record series comprises memoranda, letters and reports on the establishment and operation of the Foreign and Colonial Parcel Post, and agreements between the Post Office of the United Kingdom, and foreign postal authorities and shipping companies. It also includes papers relating to 1970s and 1980s overseas parcel services.

This series contains material on the recruitment of Post Office staff. It covers methods of recruitment, the examinations involved, the various types of posts, the different methods of admission, and the problems encountered regarding recruitment, such as shortage of labour and the employment of disabled persons.

This series contains records relating to the nomination and appointment of staff, both Established and non-Established. It consists mainly of volumes, in which vacancies, nominations, and appointments were recorded. It also contains records relating to bonds paid, and papers relating to the appointment of specific individuals.

Prior to 1831 appointment records were not kept uniformly over the country and separate series were created. In 1831 centralised employment records were created by copying the relevant minute numbers and brief details relating to appointment, transfer, dismissal, resignation, retirement, or death.

Some records were transferred from POST 14.

This series comprises material relating to the formation, functions and administration of Post Office Staff Associations.

This POST class comprises papers and copy minutes of the Post Office Board (1934-[1992]), the Post Office Management Board (1970-1979), and the Posts and Girobank Board (1980-1981). The signed minutes of the main Post Office Board are included, 1969-1972.

This POST class also includes papers of subsidiary boards and committees established by the board, or whose papers and minutes were received by the Board. These include the Girobank Board, Parcels Business Board, Post Office Finance Limited Board, the Post Office Board Emergency Committee, the National Joint Policy Council, the Managing Director's Committee: Posts, the Chairman's Executive Committee, the Post Office Executive Committee, the Girobank and Counters Committee, the Audit Committee, the Counters Executive Committee, the Major Projects Expenditure Committee, the Royal Mail Executive Committee, the Letters Management Committee, the Corporate Identitity and design Committee, the Counter Automation Management Committee and ad hoc committees established by the board.

This series consists of reports, memoranda and accounts relating to the organisation, structure, functions and operations of Post Office factories and the Factories Department.

This series consists of records of the Public Accounts Audit Commissioners' checks on GPO annual accounts and the Accountant General's checks on accounts received from agents and postmasters in the first half of the 19th century. Also included are various reports and other papers relating to financial systems, methods of accounting and collecting, collating and presenting business statistics in the Post Office.

This series contains records relating to the transportation of mails by road (mail coaches in particular) but also includes material on the early use of railways. Some reference to steam packets is also contained in this series.

This series of records comprises the private office papers of Rowland Hill including, Rowland Hill's Post Office Journals, extracts from the volumes of Secretary's minutes to the Postmaster General and some original documentation relating to those minutes, volumes of Rowland Hill's minutes to the Postmaster General, correspondence and general material relating particularly to postal reform and including a copy of all volumes of 'History of Penny Postage' by Sir Rowland Hill, KCB (published by William Clowes & Sons).

This class comprises Post Office headquarters files which, as a time saving wartime measure, were recorded under a Decimal Filing system, instead of the previously used 'Minuted' system. Like the minuted series, the files cover a diverse range of subjects and registry staff continued to add files to the series after it had nominally been closed in 1949: consequently, records date up to 1967. Subjects covered in the papers include inland and overseas telecommunications during and after wartime, the issue of stamps, and Post Office administrative records, such as those covering the introduction of the Decimal Filing system.

The Decimal Filing system was a simple system based on numbers being allocated to particular subjects or headings, with decimal extensions of these numbers being allocated to subheadings: e.g. 10 = Postal Packets, 100 = Letters (Ordinary). No record volumes were created for the Decimal Filing series; papers were filed in batches according to the common serial number allocated for a particular subject.

This Class relates mainly to the railways but includes some material concerning conveyance of mail by mail coaches and steam ships.

When Stephen Tallents became GPO (General Post Office) Public Relations Manager in 1933, he decided to adopt the use of posters to carry information from the Post Office to the public. The bulk of POST 110 consists of over 6000 posters produced by the Post Office from the creation of its Public Relations Department in 1934 up to the present day.

Posters were initially produced for distribution to schools as an educational aid, or for display on mail vans, but soon the decision was taken to produce posters specifically designed to be displayed inside public offices; subject matter included public information and sales of philatelic items.

Posters for internal purposes were also produced by the Joint Production Council from the 1950s, these variously encouraged staff to be industrious, vigilant and to be thrifty.

Many well-known artists and designers have been commissioned by the Post Office (particularly in the 1930s-1950s) to produce posters. These artists include Peter Huveneers, Hans Schleger (Zero), Abram Games, Austin Cooper, Eric Fraser, Jan Lewitt, George Him, Tom Eckersley, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Harold Sandys Williamson, Frederic Henri Kay Henrion, Hans Arnold Rothholz, Ronald Searle and Barnett Freedman.

POST 110 also includes POPOS (Post Office Point of Sale) display instructions produced for branches, giving information on the display material they should obtain and display for particular periods. It also includes other publicity material such as leaflets and calendars.

There is an ongoing project to catalogue POST 110, with the main focus currently on the posters; there are 1,837 posters catalogued and available for viewing via our online catalogue, the majority of these records also include images of the posters.

POST 114 comprises Acts of Parliament relating to Post Office business covering the years 1657-1986. Parliamentary warrants, treasury warrants, details of parliamentary debates, memoranda and related reports can also be found within this class. The class is thematically separated into 24 Sub-Series' (which in turn are organised chronologically) covering a wide range of legislature, from major Post Office Acts that established such historic privileges as the state monopoly of postal communications, to numerous acts of a less celebrated nature, such as Road Repair Acts or Electric Lighting Acts. A number of important Acts can be found in Sub-Series 1 'The Establishment of the Post Office and Postage Rates', including the Post Office Acts of 1657 and 1969. Reports, policy reviews, various bills and other papers of a similar nature are gathered in Sub-Series 2 'Growth and Expansion of the Modern Post Office'. These records cover the years 1951-1986. All of the major branches of business that have been under the control of the Post Office during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are represented in this class, including: telegraphs and telephones (Sub-Series 7); savings banks (Sub-Series 12); pensions (Sub-Series 15); and National Insurance (Sub-Series 16), amongst much else.

Papers of the Post Office Investigation Department (POID), consisting of reports, instructions, memoranda, annual reports and research notes.

This series comprises 'minuted' papers relating to all manner of Post Office matters.

'Minuted' papers were those papers which had been submitted to the Postmaster General for a decision, and then been retained in the Post Office registry. At first, the papers 'minuted' tended only to be the particular case submitted to the Postmaster General but, as time went on, registry staff followed a practice of continuing to add physically to an existing minuted case all other cases on that subject which came to hand. As a result, the minuted papers frequently consist of quite large bundles of files. On a common subject spanning many years. The date range of files is consequently often much earlier or much later than the date suggested by the 'Former Reference' used by the registry staff and, in many cases, the precise dates covered by the files have not yet been listed. The subject of individual files among the minuted papers can be wide-ranging, from the mundane administrative minutiae to policy decisions on developments of critical importance.

Some abbreviations used in file titles (not an exhaustive list):

BFPO: British Forces Post Office

DG: Director General

IHDS: International Household Delivery Service

IMP: Integrated Mail Processor

IMS: Institute of Manpower Studies

IOC: International Olympic Committee

IPBS: Infectious Perishable Biological Substances

IPC: International Post Corporation

IPT: Industry and Parliamentary Trust

ISIS (pay): Individual Salary Increase System

ISIS (postage stamps): Immediate Sales Indicator Systems

ISM: Information Systems Manager(s)

LPR: London Postal Region

NPM: National Postal Museum

PMG: Postmaster General

POB: Post Office Board

POC: Post Office Circular

POP: Post Office Preferred

POUNC: Post Office Users' National Council

P&TO: Postal and Telegraph Officers

PRU: Pay Research Unit

RFU: Rugby Football Union

TPO(S): Travelling Post Office(s)

UPW: Union of Post Office Workers

Includes Board minutes and reports concerned with industrial relations with the Union of Postal Workers in general and the national postal workers' strike of January to March 1971 in particular.

Other papers include an account of a fact-finding visit to the United States of America undertaken with colleagues in March 1971, transcripts of interviews, some photographs and copies of speeches.

This series relates to the conveyance of mail on the railways. In the latter half of the 19th century railway mail services were known as Travelling Post Offices and sorting tenders. During the early 19th century sorting tenders became known as sorting carriages. In general terminology sorting carriages were also often referred to as TPOs. The railway mail service also included bag duties or tenders. TPOs and sorting carriages comprised either special trains run exclusively for conveyance and sorting of mails or carriages on passenger trains hired to convey and sort mails. Bag duties were run solely for transportation of mails.

This series includes papers on the mail bag exchange apparatus, TPO mail circulation and sorting lists, railway rolling stock lists and diagrams, schedules of TPO services, minutes of the TPO Whitley Sub-Committee and files on TPO staffing, during railway strikes and after service alterations.

This Post Class contains statistics relating to Post Office business, including returns of delivered, posted and registered mails, 1839-1913; comparative summaries of annual returns of work and staff hours from Head Post Offices in the United Kingdom, covering 1923-1966; returns of work and staff on Travelling Post Offices and Sorting Carriages, 1951-1974; and postal business key performance statistics, 1973-1985. Also includes statistics relating to Quality of Service (1985-1989 and 1992).

This series relates to the conveyance of mails by Underground pneumatic tube in London. It comprises reports and papers produced and used by the committee appointed in 1909 by the Postmaster General to consider the introduction of the underground transmission of mails within London and plans of the proposed route for the railway, showing rail levels and junctions. It also contains a copy of the Post Office (London) Railway act and the patent granted to Hosiah Latimer Clark for the invention of apparatus for conveying post by pneumatic tube, (POST 20/30). Papers relating to the construction, maintenance and expansion of the Post Office (London) Railway are also present including specifications, invitations to tender, conditions of contract, estimate of costs and technical plans relating to the construction of new stations, car depots, subways, additions and alterations to stations, including the fitting and maintenance of electrical equipment. This is also demonstrated through numerous plans held within the collection. As well as the Manager's annual reports, there are also numerous files of miscellaneous correspondence, memoranda and reports from the Post Office to various departments and organisations regarding the Post Office (London) Railway, historical accounts. There are also two photograph albums of railway equipment and work being carried out on it.

Some of the plans show properties purchased by the Post Office following the passage of the Post Office (London) Railway Act in 1913. There is a series of signed plans dated 26 October 1914 showing the depth and route of the Post Office (London) railway below ground with details of tunnels, shield chambers, and shafts. There is also a series of plans marking individual and corporate properties along the proposed route of the Post Office Railway.

This series relates to the operation of counters business and services. The majority of the records relate to the policy on the establishment, closure and up-grading of sub-offices and the review of the scale payment sub-office system.

The packet report series (POST 39 and 41) comprises reports to the Postmaster General from the Secretary to the Post Office, on the packet boat service and overseas mail arrangements. These are the surviving reports from those listed in POST 41.

POST 39 therefore consists of the actual Reports which are still in existence, with any enclosures. POST 41 consists of indexed volumes containing a copy of every Report submitted to the Postmaster General (including those which have since been destroyed) and is the only guide to the contents of POST 39. The Postmaster General's decision on each case is recorded. Examples of incidents recorded in the reports include the capture of packet ships, possibly due to pirates, smuggling of dry goods, loss of crew, terms and conditions of ship hire, victualling of crew and route changes and times.

In 1811 a parallel series entitled Packet Minutes (POST 29 and POST 34) was created. Cases for the attention of the Postmaster General were sometimes recorded in both series, but at other times in only one of the two series. Upon the cessation of the Report series POST 29 and POST 34 continued alone.

For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.