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From Royal Mail to Public Post: The Path to Philately
The United Kingdom postal service, Royal Mail, observes its 500th anniversary in 2016. To mark the occasion, the National Postal Museum presents a temporary display of original documents from 1635 to 1840, pivotal years in the expansion and evolution of the country's postal network.
In 1516, King Henry VIII knighted a government clerk named Brian Tuke and gave him the title Governor of the King's Posts. Sir Brian developed a system of post roads connecting London with the four corners of England. The roads to Dover in the southeast and Berwick in the north were established by 1533; those to Exeter in the southwest and Holyhead in the northwest followed soon after.
This was a closed system available only to the Crown and high-ranking public official writs, summonses and orders for the government. Over the next three centuries, however, a series of reforms gradually opened the Royal Mail to public use. These documents, on loan from a private collector, mark important turning points in the process. |