The Bath Postal Museum is in Bath, Somerset,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The museum was founded in 1979 by Audrey and Harold Swindells in the basement of their house in

Great Pulteney Street Great Pulteney Street is a grand thoroughfare that connects Bathwick on the east of the River Avon with the City of Bath, England via the Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge. Viewed from the city side of the bridge the road leads directly to t ...

. In 1985, it moved to a home in Broad Street. This was the site of Bath's main

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

from 1822 to 1854 and the building in which the first recorded posting of a Penny Black took place on 2 May 1840. It has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The museum's collections include: biographies of key figures involved with the development of the Post Office and connected with Bath, such as

Ralph Allen Ralph Allen (1693 – 29 June 1764) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, who was notable for his reforms to the British postal system. Allen was born in Cornwall but moved to Bath to work in the post office, becoming the postmaster at ...

John Palmer John Palmer may refer to: People Politicians * John Palmer (fl. 1377–1394), English politician * Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet (1735–1817), British politician * John Palmer (1785–1840), U.S. congressman from New York * John Palmer (1842–19 ...

and Thomas Moore Musgrave; a history of the post from 2000BC to the current day and a history of the British

postbox A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English) is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail inten ...

. Artefacts on display included

quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventual ...

s and

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thicker ...

wells, stamp boxes, post boxes,

post horn The post horn (''also'' post-horn) is a valveless cylindrical brass instrument with a cupped mouthpiece. The instrument was used to signal the arrival or departure of a post rider or mail coach. It was used especially by postilions of the 18 ...

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets ( Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a sty ...

s, strip maps, model

mail coach A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. M ...

es, and letters and postcards. There was also a replica Victorian

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

. Due to vastly increased rent from 2003, the museum had to move out of the Broad Street building and on 7 November 2006 it reopened on a much smaller scale in the basement of the post office building at 27 Northgate Street.

References

External links

Museum website
{{Authority control Museums established in 1979 Museums in Bath, Somerset Philatelic museums Grade II* listed buildings in Bath, Somerset Philately of the United Kingdom 1979 establishments in England Postal museums

See also

References

External links