Vehicles drawn by horses
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Before 1635 when The Royal Mail was quite literally the 'Royal Mail' i.e. used only by the King, post boys travelled to their destination by horse. Once the mail was opened up to the public, this continued to be the case. Mail Coaches were introduced in 1784.
From the 1840s onwards, the expansion of the railways meant that horses were used less and less for transporting mail across the country. The post continued, however, to be transported by horse in some areas right up to 1949.
Our Museum collection contains two horse-drawn vehicles and a few other objects relating to the transport of mail by horse. You can find out more about transporting the mail by horse and by road in general in our exhibition 'Moving the Mail: Horses to Horsepower'.
Here are four examples of objects relating to transporting the mail by horse:
Mail coach, c.1800, accession number: 2006-0246
Our mail coach was restored from several broken elements that were found in a farmyard. The body work was reconstructed on to the original 18th-century undercarriage. It is thought that the mail coach would have transported mail between London and Bristol.
Mail coaches required quick changes of horses every 10 miles. This made them much faster than the previous post boys. A record time of 16 hours between London and Bristol was reached on the first journey in August 1784. Mail coaches continued to depart from London until April 1846. They continued in the provinces for just a few years more.
Mail coach guards were the only Post Office employee on a mail coach. The guards had to be heavily armed to protect the mails from highwaymen. See Weapons for more information.
Horse-drawn van, c.1935, accession number: OB2002.40
This horse-drawn Royal Mail van was used in London until 1947 when it was bought by a Bristol vet. It was bought back by Royal Mail in 1976 and restored.
Horse-drawn vans were introduced in London in 1829 to carry letter carriers to the start of their delivery routes. A special design meant that the letter carriers could step on and off whilst the vehicle was still moving. Royal Mail always preferred to use contractors and their vans though continued to run a small fleet themselves.
Horse-drawn vans were used in London until 1949 although they would probably have died out sooner had it not been for the Second World War. Instead, they continued to prove very useful due to the shortage of petrol at this time.
Notice from the coaching inn the Bolt-in-Tunn, 18th-19th century, accession number: 2005.0081/5
This notice from one of London's main coaching inns lists two of the Royal Mail coaches from London: one to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight and one to Hastings and Tunbridge Wells. It also has a list of fast coaches from the inn.
Responsibility for such notices lay with the innkeepers. Since mail coaches were also used as a means of public transport, it was important that the public knew what time they departed.
This poster was printed by Charles Whiting, a quality printer who supplied a considerable amount of material for the Post Office over many years.
Large image (654 KB)
Parcels Post song sheet, 1883, accession number: 2005.82/13
This is the front cover of a Victorian song sheet to a song about the Parcels Post. It was written by N G Travers and arranged for voice and piano by Ernest J Symons.
The piece is part of a collection of songsheets that we were able to acquire thanks to the help of the V&A Purchase Grant fund. You can find out more about all these songsheets in our V&A Purchase Grant fund online exhibition.
The Post Office Parcels Post was introduced in 1883. This new service saw the Post Office reintroducing a brand new fleet of horse-drawn vehicles. These were run to strict time tables by a number of contractors.
The cover, by Alfred
Concanen, shows clear details of the parcels van, the postal workers and their
uniform. In the rear of the vehicle you can see a postal
worker sorting packages. The sheet records the
fact that the song was performed in public by Fred Coyne (1845-1886). Coyne was a popular
music hall artist of the day.
