This series relates to the establishment and operation of colonial post offices in British North America [Canada], Australia and New Zealand. The records include instructions from the Postmaster General via the Secretary (POST 44/1-12), returns to surveys relating to the volume of mail processed and the costs of running the offices, details of the staff employed at these offices and their duties (POST 44/24-33).
Sin títuloRecords relating to the operation of British Postal Agencies.
Sin títuloThis record series comprises copies (mainly published and submitted to the House of Commons) of conventions and articles of agreement made between the Government and/or The Post Office of the United Kingdom and overseas governments and/or postal administrations, for the exchange of mails and the regulation of these services. The conventions lay down the offices of exchange, despatch and delivery times, weight and dimension limits and postage rates.
POST 46/57 relates to the formation of the Universal Postal Union in 1875.
POST 46/62 relates to the establishment of an Imperial Penny Postage, introduced in 1898 and POST 46/63-65 concerns the payments of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for the conveyance of mail.
Sin títuloOn 1 April 1914, under authority of an Order in Council, responsibility for both the manufacture and distribution of postage stamps and related items passed from the Board of Inland Revenue to the Post Office. The work transferred included control of the contracts for the manufacture of watermarked paper, adhesive postage stamps, stamped stationery and postal orders. The records listed here are those created by the Post Office's Stores Depot, more recently known as the Royal Mail Stamp Depot. It was the latter which, in 1989, discovered this collection lying forgotten in its store, and transferred it in its entirety to the Post Office Archives. In 1995 material was sent to the Archive from Hemel Hempstead, and as other items have come to hand, they too have been transferred and added to this list. Please refer to the individual sub-series for the dates that they cover.
Sin títuloThis series consists of a series of quarterly accounts of salaries and allowances due and payable by incidents to the officers, clerks and tradesmen employed by the General, Twopenny and London District Post Offices (the Twopenny Post was replaced by the London District Post in 1844). Items 6/4-6, covering 1794-1799, also include separate quarterly accounts of tradesmen's bills and incidental warrants paid out of the revenue of the Bye and Cross Road Letter Office. Accounts cover a wide variety of items and are arranged under general subject headings, such as 'pensions', 'packets', 'tradesmen' and 'rents'. Entries include what the bill is for, name of person owed and the amount. The date of the Treasury warrant authorising payment is often included at the end of each quarterly account. Volumes are not indexed. The accounts include bills for:
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Pensions, salaries and allowances to chief and senior officers, clerks, sorters, messengers and servants working in London headquarters departments, including offices of the Secretary and Accountant General, and the Foreign, Inland, Express, Mail Coach, Dead Letter, Ship Letter and Bye Letter offices; packet agents; surveyors; postmasters inspectors of mails, letter receivers and carriers and packet ships; commanders and mates of packet ships, or their widows; letter receivers and carriers in London; and mail guards
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Expenses for mail conveyance by sea, including costs incurred by packet ships operating from Falmouth, Harwich, Dover, Whitehaven, Donaghadee, Weymouth, Milford Haven and Holyhead, and in the West and East Indies, notably hire charges, lighting dues, arms and ammunition stores, wages and victualling for captains, officers and crew whilst at sea, out of employ or while the ship is undergoing repairs; and ship letter mails
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Expenses for inland mail conveyance, notably for payments to mail coach contractors; road, bridge and ferry tolls; supply and upkeep of fire arms, time pieces, mail bags and mail guards uniforms; mail coach maintenance; and railway and steam packet company charges
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Compensation for abolished positions or duties
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Items supplied or work done by tradesmen
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Legal expenses notably relating to investigation, detection, capture, and trail of felons
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Rents, taxes and rates for offices in London
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Stationery printing costs
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Transit postage and tonnage dues to foreign post offices
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Travelling expenses, particularly surveyors'
Item 6/11, covering 1805-1809, is different to the rest of the series. It contains certified accounts of the quarterly salaries and allowances paid by incidents upon which the Civil List deduction, or tax, of six pence in the pound is chargeable. Each account lists the 'salaries' and 'incidents' of individual officers and clerks at the General Post Office headquarters in London, including the Postmaster General, Secretary and other senior officers, and the total duty payable each quarter.
These accounts probably originate from the office of the Receiver General, who was in charge of all moneys received and paid out of the revenue of the Post Office.
Sin títuloThis series contains records on all aspects of The Post Office's welfare policy and its implementation. It mainly consists of reports and reviews, minutes and annual reports, correspondence, policies, leaflets and guides, and newsletters. These relate to matters such as Health and Safety in the workplace, refreshment facilities, general health and well being of employees, work related issues such as equal opportunites and harassment, Post Office benevolent societies, staff awards and recreational clubs.
Sin títuloThis class consists of papers spanning the period from pre-regionalisation, when the country was separated into Districts run by District Surveyors, reporting directly to the Postmaster General, up until the early 1990s.
It includes papers on Regional surveying duties and the stretching of resources in the light of an increase in work load due to rapid expansion of the Post Office in the nineteenth century.
In addition it incorporates papers from various Committees including:
-The Decentralisation Committee, appointed to consider devolution of powers in the light of mounting criticism of centralisation of Post Office administration leading to inefficiency and an inability to concentrate on development of policy.
-The Committee of Enquiry on the Post Office (Bridgeman Committee) appointed to consider change in Post Office administration, which had various wide ranging recommendations, including that of the introduction of a Regional system with powers devolved on Regional Directors.
-The Committee on Metropolitan and Regional organisation (Gardiner Committee), appointed to carry through the recommendations of the Bridgeman Report, culminating in the creation of two experimental Regions in Scotland and the North East.
-The Working Party on Regionalisation appointed to assess the progress of Regionalisation and to recommend further innovations if necessary.
It also includes papers from the experimental Regions and various Regional Conferences, as well as papers from the individual Regions. Subjects covered by this material include papers covering the civil disturbances in Northern Ireland and papers relating to the London Postal Service and the inauguration of the London Postal Region. Also included are papers concerning the input of the London and Midlands Regions into the several reviews of efficiency of the Post Office conducted by McKinsey and Company.
There are also papers relating to the split of the Post Office into two separate divisions: Postal and Telecommunications, and how this might best be carried out across the Regional structure.
The papers incorporate a wide range of material, including annual reports, meeting minutes and papers, financial paperwork, organisational diagrams, Regional Board papers, Regional publications, reviews, strategic plans and photographs of Regional representatives.
Sin títuloThis series comprises reports and papers on the establishment and operation of, and facilities and services provided by The Post Office Savings Bank. This series comprises those records that did not form part of the National Savings Department holdings in 1969.
Sin títuloRecords of central administration of the Post Office Telegraphs and Telephones (later Post Office Telecommunications) including records of the Post Office Board (including meeting papers TCB 54), Post Office Advisory Committee and other central functions.
The records concern both strategic telegraphy and telephony activities, such as policy, planning, legal papers (including on the takeover of the National Telephone Company) and routine reporting, and central operational activities including personnel and communications (including Joint Production Council publications, staff magazines, press notices, media coverage and training school and studio photographs).
These central administration records also include the minuted papers relating to telecommunication services 1889-1977 that, for various reasons, fell outside previous archival transfer. The subjects in these minuted papers (TCB 2) include satellite communications (Early Bird), international telephone services, policies toward staff and unions, telephone information services (including ship telephone services, roads and weather, teletourist service, speaking clock and the Santa Claus service), and technological developments (including telephone kiosks, the answering machine, "Amplifying Telephone" and "Laryngaphone").
Sin títuloRecords of the Post Office Engineering Union (POEU), formerly the Post Office Engineering and Stores Associstion. 1916-1917, 1926-1928, 1947-1960, 1964-1968, comprising:
Post Office Engineering and Stores Association, Electric Light and Power Branch: Branch and Committee minutes, 1916-1917;
Post Office Engineering Union: Eectric Light and Power Branch: Committee minutes, 1926-1928;
POEU: Post Office Railway (London) Branch (Mount Pleasant): branch minutes 1947-1960;
POEU LPR Branch (St Martin Le Grand later Mount Pleasant): branch minutes, 1964-1968.
Letter from Thomas Hoskins Webb of Camden, Maine to Joseph Hume, 11 Aug 1849. Thanking him for his 'kind attention to my inquiries relative to the important subject of Postal Reform'; sending him a copy of a pamphlet issued by 'our Free [sic] Postage Association, wherein you will find an extract from one of your letters to me, and in an Appendix the statistics by you kindly funished'; offering to send extra copies should Hume or Mr Rowland Hill desire any. Webb mentions 'another subject or project designed for the public good. I mean a "People's Library". Altho' we abound in Charitable, Literary, and Scientific Institutions, we have nothing of this description. We have Athenaeums, Social Libraries, Circulating Do., Mercantile Do., Apprentices' Do., Historical Do., but not one People's Library... The great mass of the community, the People, emphatically so called, have no right of admission to any of these places...'.
Autograph, with signature. A note in another hand states that a reply was made on 28 Aug 1849; initialled: 'D'.
Sin títuloManuscript volume of financial abstracts relating to Customs and Excise duties, Exchequer bills and the Post Office, as follows:
1.'A true copie of the table of proportion whereby the money received out of the country upon the account of excise is applyed to the severall duties of excise...Excise Office, London, 9 July 1703', from an original signed by Deane Mountague'.
- 'A state of the Exchequer bills issued by vertue of three act of Parliament that passed on the 8th, 9th and 12th year of the reign of William III computed from 26th April 1697 to 27th August 1703'.
- Account of the Salt Act bills of credit, 1696-98.
- Account of principal and interest paid on the several registers following, between Michaelmas 1702 and Midsummer 1704.
- Account of the revenue of the General Post Office, 1702-1703.
- Penny Post Office account 23 Sep-23 Dec 1702.
- 'List of the officers and messengers belonging to the Peny Post Office with their several salaries and wages'.
- 'Gross and net produce of the whole excise from 24 June 1704 to 24 June 1705'.