Business history records
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Royal Mail has always
been an innovative business. Because it has been involved in many different activities, it has also innovated in many
areas. Good general record keeping has left us with an excellent set of material
to offer researchers today.
As the Post Office has been a government department, a corporation, and a public limited company, there are few other places in the UK that researchers can go to get
the anything like the same range of business records.
The earliest records that we hold on business history date back to 1672. This series of records relates to significant individuals in the history of the organisation. Those documents dating from 1672 relate to Colonel Roger Whitley, Deputy Postmaster General.
Find out about our Business History objects in the Museum collection
In our collection...
Financial records
Our financial records include cash books, accounts, treasury correspondence and lots more.
See examples of our financial records...
Individuals
We
hold a wealth of information on a number of key figures in the Post
Office. Not only that, we also have substantial amounts of information
on ordinary postal workers.
See examples of our records about individuals...
Post Office counter services
The
records in archive class POST 22 deal with all aspects of work at Post
Office counters. Other archive classes also contain relevant
information.
See examples of our records on Post Office counter services...
Post Office Headquarters
Files from the Post Office central filing system include
material dating from 1790 to the very recent past.
They can cover all
aspects of the Post Office’s operation locally, nationally and
internationally.
See examples of our records on Post Office Headquarters...
Post Office Savings Bank
The Post Office Savings Bank was set up to encourage ordinary people to save money in a secure way. We hold some of the records from the time when the Post Office ran the Savings Bank (up until 1969).
See examples of our records about the Post Office Savings Bank...
Sorting & Delivery
We have a large collection of archives relating to the sorting & delivery of mail, particularly the developments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
See examples of our records about sorting & delivery...
Telecommunications
We hold records about the telegraph, telephone, wireless and early broadcasting services.
See examples of our records about telecommunications...
Access
The best way to see all our business history records is to visit The Royal Mail Archive in Freeling House (see the Visiting section for details). A few of the records are yet to be catalogued but most have been processed. You can search for them in our online catalogue. To protect original material some records may be on microfilm.
