PENMON - POSTAL HISTORY

		POSTAL HISTORY
Date	Topic	Event
2000 BC	Postal tablets	The truly romantic period of postal history starts with the first clay tablet letters dating from 2000 BC lasting to the introduction of the adhesive stamp in 1840.
Circa 550 BC	Persian Empire	There was a regular system of despatch riders or State carriers.
Circa 1350	Private posts	In England private posts existed from the time of Edward III, and a royal messenger service, out of which the postal service developed even earlier.
1500	Postal service	The King’s Post commenced up to 1635. This was the only regular post. Letters carried were signed by a notable person and were often marked as ‘Per Messenger’.
1500 – 1839	Postal service	During this long period there were a number of other posts, private and official.
1533	Post Master General	In the reign of Henry VIII, what may be called a Post Master General was appointed.
1574	Postal service	Each 'Post Master' had to have at least three horses available for use. At the sound of the approaching Post Boy’s horn, his own Post Boy was made ready to start the next stage of the journey. The work of the Post Boys was both uncomfortable and dangerous. Time could be lost through hold-ups by highwaymen, or just the perils of bad weather.
1602	Postal service	A government postal service was established to Milford. The messengers of Queen Elizabeth I passed through the ‘Post Towns’ of Chepstow, Newport, Cardiff, Swansea, Carmarthen and Haverfordwest. There were six main post roads of the country
1635	Postal service	Thomas Withering’s Post lasted up to 1642. The charges for this were 2d for under 80 miles, 4d for 80 – 140 miles and 6d above 140 miles and 8d to Scotland.
31 July 1635	Postal service	The first national postal service between London and Edinburgh is established under Charles I. Thomas appointed Chief Postmaster of England.
October 1635	Postal Service	First Posthouse located in Bishopsgate Street, London, by Thomas Witherings, a member of the Mercers Company.
1637	Postal Service	Posthouses established in Barbican for receipt of mails from the Great North and Chester Road mail coaches, and at Charing Cross for the Plymouth Road mail coaches.
Pre 1653	Postal service	For many years the Post Office employed its clerks to sort and handle the mail at the main offices, but the work of carrying it along the Post and Bye Roads was by letter carriers on foot or horseback.
Post 1653	Postal service	After 1653, much of the post was contracted out to Private persons. These contractors became known as the farmers of the posts and Ralph Allen was probably the most famous of these.
1657	Postal charges	An Act of Parliament fixed rates for sending letters and established the system for the British Isles.
1660 - 1711	Postal service	The General Post was introduced up to 1711. This was based on a single sheet and distance rate of 2d for 80 miles and under. The postage was doubled or trebled for two or more sheets of paper.
1661-1787	Postal service	Henry Bishop set up a system of marks to eliminate delays in the post. His famous marks, showed day and month but not the year, with a small type before 1713 and a larger one thereafter.
1677	Postal service	A general survey of the Post Office made by the Comptroller of the Inland Revenue, Thomas Gardiner, shows the existence of a regular horse post through Monmouth, Newport, Cardiff and Bridgend to Swansea. No regular service to West Wales as the North Wales route to Ireland took precedence over the route to Milford.
1680-1682	Postal markings	William Dockwra’s London Penny Post, a private venture, was most successful, with its characteristic marks showing the day and time
March 1681	Postage stamps	Robert Murray, a former government clerk, sets up penny-postage system in London.
1682-1794	Postal markings	William Dockwra’s system was run and also taken over by the state.
1693	Postal service	Born in Cornwall, Ralph Allen (1693 - June 29, 1764), transferred from a post office there at age 17 to one in Bath. Two years later in 1712, he became the Post Master of the city. He shortly reorganized the entire postal service and became very wealthy doing so.
Circa 1700	Postage stamps	About 1700 the first handstruck marks for the provincial towns came into use. Earliest for TENBY is on a letter to London handstruck April 23^rd, 1714
1700s	Postal Service	The earliest post offices (where the public would take or collect their mail) were usually housed at inns, and were known as Letter Receiving Houses, where the only duties of the Innkeeper-cum Postmaster were the acceptance and handing over of letters, the exchange of mailbags and the provision of fresh horses for the Post-Boys. Few Post-Boys had a mail cart or even a horse.
1710	GPO	Various services existed and extended up to this time, when it was consolidated into establishment, when a General Post Office for the British dominions was set up in London, under the control of the Post Master General.
1711	Post Office	A Post Office Act established ‘Cross Stages’ or post roads from one main post road to another short of London, and increased the postal charges.
1711	Post Office	Tenby Post Office Established, with James Callow as Postmaster.
1711	Postage stamp	Charge for a single letter from Tenby to London was 4d.
12 March 1713	Post Office	Tenby first appears in the Postmaster’s Salary Lists. ‘To James Callow of Tenbigh one year and five months salary at £6 per annum from August ye 1^st 1711 to March 25^th 1713 £10’. The Postmaster’s salary remained at £6 per annum until the turn of the century.
1715	Postal service	Appointment of the first Post Office Surveyors, one for each of the six main post roads ‘to make continual journeys into the kingdom to examine the accounts and superintend the management’
1721	Postal service	Ralph Allen, Bath post master, devises a new system to speed the delivery of letters throughout the county. Devised a “cross-post” system establishing direct links between provincial towns, avoiding the London sorting system. Faster and cheaper. Allen was expected to make £12,000 from his idea.
1763	Turnpike Trust	The increasing traffic on the roads and maintenance costs led to the formation of the Turnpike Trusts. The erection of turnpike gates and the revival of tolls helped with the costs.
1763	Postal service	A regular postal service established to West Wales
1764 - 1840	Postal service	Free franking for Members of Parliament and State Officers appeared.
1764	Postal service	Ralph Allen dies. (see 1653 and 1721)
1765 - 1784	Postal service	Between 1765 and 1784 a letter could be sent over one stage of the coach, about 16 miles for 1d.
1777	Postal service	Penny post service begins in Edinburgh. Peter Williamson, a bookseller, offers to deliver letters and parcels to any address within one mile of the city’s mercat cross for one penny.
1783	Mail coach	John Palmer of Bath proposed a mail-caoch service, a revolutionary concept after three centuries of foot and horse-posts.
14 May 1784	Post Office	Post Office established in Ireland by official statute.
1784	Postal service	To help clerks, the mileages from London were included in the handstamp applied at the Receiving Offices.
1784	Postage stamp	Charge for a single letter from Tenby to London was 6d
2 August 1784	Mail Coach	First mail-coach travels between Bristol and London. Introduced by John Palmer, Bristol’s postmaster. First postal employees to receive an official uniform are mail coach guards.
1785	Mail coach	Mail coach service extended to Milford with a packet service commencing from Milford to Ireland the same year.
1786	Mail coach	London to Edinburgh Mail Coach service is established, taking 60 hours.
1787	Franking	Handstamping the post commenced, with day, month and year.
1787	Mail coach	The Irish Mail was carried along the South Wales route for the first time.
1788	Mail coach	London to Glasgow Mail Coach is established, taking four days.
1792	Money Orders	A system of money letters was established by six clerks of the roads with the sanction of the Postmaster General to safely transmit small sums of money from one part of the UK to another (see 1838)
1793	Postal service	Provincial Penny posts were set up. The mail had to be taken into a Receiving House, each of which had a distinctive mark.
1794	Postal service	(see 1682-1794) The London Penny Post led on from Dockwra’s Post and was reorganised for letters circulating within ten miles of the GPO. It ran side by side but not quite separately from the General Post.
1795	Postage stamp	Rowland Hill born (see 1840)
1796	Postage stamp	Charge for a single letter from Tenby to London was 8d..
1796 - 1801	Postal service	Single sheet letters were rated at 3d for under 15 miles, with steps up to 8d for over 150 miles