The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Bristol Royal Mail Post, Telegraph, and Telephone Author: R. C. Tombs Release Date: November 2, 2010 [EBook #34197] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRISTOL ROYAL MAIL *** Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Henry Gardiner, The Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: No copyright date is indicated in the source material, but the last date mentioned is November, 1899. Found at the end of the text is a list of corrections of discovered publisher's typographic errors. The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs 1 THE BRISTOL ROYAL MAIL. [Illustration: THE POSTMASTER'S OFFICE, BRISTOL. From a photograph by Mr. Protheroe, Wine St., Bristol.] All rights reserved. THE BRISTOL ROYAL MAIL. POST, TELEGRAPH, AND TELEPHONE. BY R. C. TOMBS, Postmaster of Bristol, Ex-Controller of the London Postal Service. BRISTOL: J. W. ARROWSMITH, 11 QUAY STREET. CONTENTS. The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs 2 CHAPTER I. Page DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAIL SERVICES. RALPH ALLEN. 1532-1764 1 CHAPTER I. 3 CHAPTER II. MAIL COACH ERA. JOHN PALMER. 1770-1818 17 CHAPTER II. 4 CHAPTER III. 1818 ONWARDS. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. OLD MAIL GUARDS 35 CHAPTER III. 5 CHAPTER IV. VICTORIAN ERA, 1837-1899. MAIL TRANSPORT BY RAILWAY. TRAVELLING POST OFFICES 49 CHAPTER IV. 6 CHAPTER V. BRISTOL POSTMASTERS. 1678-1899 68 CHAPTER V. 7 CHAPTER VI. NOTABLE POST OFFICE SERVANTS OF BRISTOL ORIGIN 82 CHAPTER VI. 8 CHAPTER VII. POST OFFICE BUILDINGS 89 CHAPTER VII. 9 CHAPTER VIII. THE LOCAL POST OFFICE IN EARLY DAYS. SIR ROWLAND HILL. RECENT PROGRESS 121 CHAPTER VIII. 10 [...]... night." In 1700 the service between Bristol and London became fixed, and on alternate days at irregular hours, depending upon the state of the weather and the roads, the extent of the journey and the caprices of the postboys and the sorry nags that carried them, the mail arrived in Bristol There were, however, only a mere handful of letters and newspapers At the end of the same year, the Post Office... wagons they were conveyed more quickly than by the postboys through London, and at a cheaper rate Moved by the success of the new cross posts from Bristol to Exeter, the Treasury consented to the starting of the Chester service The Post Office reported to the Treasury in March, 1702, that the profit for the first eighteen months of the Chester service had been about £156 The accounts of Henry Pyne, the Bristol. .. and as the number of mails increased so there was more and more bustle in the vicinity of the General Post Office at that hour In London the arrival of all the mails was awaited before any one of them was delivered; and this led to the delivery sometimes not taking place until 3.0 or 4.0 in the afternoon, or even later Palmer, with his regard for the Bristol coach, occasionally had the Bristol mails... the season, like ships during Arctic frosts There is a model of an old mail coach at the General Post Office, St Martin's-le-Grand, London, popularly supposed to be the model of the first mail coach which was built, but such is not the case, for, as already stated, the first mail coach ran between Bristol and London, and the model has upon it the inscription "Royal Mail from London to Liverpool." The. .. 12.0 every day Royal mail coach to Newport, Cardiff, Cowbridge, Neath, Swansea, and Carmarthen every day on the arrival of the London mail Royal mail coach through Newport, Cardiff, Cowbridge, Swansea, Carmarthen, to Haverford-west and Milford Haven every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday on the arrival of the London mail The 'Cambrian,' a light post coach, the same route as the mail, to Swansea... form of a warning to the mail guards who travelled in charge of the Post Office bags When in 1813-14 the great frost occurred, the Bristol mail coaches were obstructed by the heavy snowdrifts on the roads, and they came in day after day drawn by six horses each when they could struggle into the City The literature of the period yields nothing of interest again for some time The "Bristol Guide" in 1815... suggestion to the Post Office for bringing the London mail to the city in twelve hours The Postmaster-General was also memorialised to accelerate the arrival of the West mail, so as to effect its delivery before the departure of the London mail, a convenience of no little moment to the West India trade of the port, since it was thought that it would save one day in the conduct of business with the metropolis... MOSES NOBBS THE LAST OF THE MAIL GUARDS.] Mr Nobbs tells that one night when the Bristol coach was between Bath and Warminster, two men jumped out of the hedge; one caught hold of the leaders, and the other the wheelers, and tried to stop the coach The coachman, immediately whipped up the horses, and called out, "Look out! we are going to be robbed!" Mr Nobbs took the blunderbuss out of the arms case... guards had from time to time to go across the fields to get past the deep snowdrifts In the annual procession of mail coaches round London, at the head thereof was "the oldest established mail, " the Bristol mail, probably with Guard Nobbs in charge Some twenty-seven to thirty coaches took part in the procession thus headed The old mail guards had a literature of their own As an example, one report on... hours The Liverpool and Milford mails were conveyed across the Severn at Aust Passage, where the ferry had been located since the Lord Protector's time A moderate expenditure on the piers at Aust Passage, though little regarded by the citizens at the time the work was in progress, with the introduction there of a steam vessel, was one of the principal means of bringing about the establishment of the . errors. The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs 1 THE BRISTOL ROYAL MAIL. [Illustration: THE POSTMASTER'S OFFICE, BRISTOL. From a photograph by Mr. Protheroe,. The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bristol Royal Mail, by R. C. Tombs This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere