Timeline
| Timeline |
Horses to Horsepower |
|---|---|
| 1635 |
Establishment of state postal service by Royal Proclamation of Charles I. Public now able to use the facilities of the Royal Posts. Letters carried between 'posts' by mounted Post Boys. |
1784 2 Aug |
First Mail Coach service runs between Bristol and London via Bath. |
1830 |
Letters first carried by rail on newly opened Liverpool and Manchester Railway. |
1838 22 May |
Mail Coaches for Holyhead, Manchester, Liverpool and Carlisle carried on rail trucks on Euston – Birmingham Railway. |
1846 April |
Last London-based Mail Coach leaves for Norwich. |
1880 |
First use of pedal tricycles by the Post Office to deliver mail; trials held in Coventry. |
1887 1 June |
Long distance horse-drawn mail coaches re-introduced to carry parcels. |
| 1897 |
First official introduction of Post Office bicycles. 100 purchased from the Quadrant Cycle Company, largely to cope with the delivery of telegrams following the extension of the radius for free delivery. |
1897 16 Dec |
Experimental steam motor-van used between London’s Mount Pleasant and Redhill, Surrey. |
1902 |
Post Office abandons a standard specification for its bicycles. Standard 'trade' pattern cycles adopted. |
1903 |
Motor tricycle used in a trial in London. |
| 1904 |
Post Office Stores Department purchases a second-hand Wallis & Stevens traction engine; their first mechanically powered vehicle. |
1907 |
Stores Department purchases their first new Post Office lorry, a Maudsley, for £727. |
1914 |
Trials of motorcycle combinations as a replacement for mounted postmen, tri-cars purchased the following year. |
1925 |
First purchase of solo motorcycles by the Post Office following successful trials the previous year. |
1929 |
Post Office introduces a 'standard' pattern bicycle. This design remains in use (with minor modifications) until 1992. |
1933 |
Successful experiments held in Leeds of telegraph messengers using motorcycles. |
1936 6-8 Oct |
Mobile Post Office 'GPO 1' makes its first public appearance at the Marden and District Commercial Fruit Show. |
1949 24 Sept |
Last horse-drawn mail van leaves King Edward Building, London. |
1954 |
Pedestrian-operated Electric Delivery Trucks (PEDT) enter service. |
1967 20 Feb |
First Postbus route opens between Llangarig and Llanidloes in Powys, Mid-Wales. |
| 2000 |
Following successful test run in Oxford, trials commence in London with electric delivery van called the Carryall manufactured by Bradshaws of Peterborough. |
| 2003 June |
Royal Mail announced the new integrated road and air network for the distribution of mail. They begin to cancel train services including the Travelling Post Offices. Last TPO journey, between Bristol and Penzance, arrived at Penzance at 06.30 on 10 January 2004. |
