The Story of the letter post

this film recounts the gradual development of the British mail service from the fifteenth century, reconstructed with period costumes, museum pieces, and old stamps. Early use of messengers and Henry VIII’s service expanded for public use by Charles I; 1660 Act of Parliament; Ralph Allan’s reforms; the Industrial Revolution; improved roads and the mail coach; Rowland Hill’s penny post and modern mechanical methods.

Credits

production company

General Post Office

producer

Oswald Skilbeck

director

David Morphet

Duration

00:17:05:00

Production places

United Kingdom

Production dates

1961

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

010315

Language

English

Subject categories

Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Communication

Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Postal service

Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Postal service - Great Britain

Documentary

History → History

Short films

Short films → Short films - Great Britain

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/73260--the-story-of-the-letter-post/ |title=The Story of the letter post |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=23 May 2022 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United Kingdom, 1961

Please note