Guernsey Post is the postal service for the island of
Guernsey,
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
. It includes a
Philatelic bureau
This a list of philatelic bureaus across the world.
In philately, a philatelic bureau is the part of a national postal administration that sells philatelic items to stamp collectors, tourists and stamp dealers.
Bureaus by country
* Afghanista ...
, and regularly issues both
definitive
Definitive may refer to:
* ''Definitive'' (TV series), an American music television series
* Definitive stamp, a postage stamp that is part of a regular issue of a country's stamps available for sale by the postal service
See also
* Definiten ...
and
commemorative stamps. It also provides postal services for
Sark
Sark (french: link=no, Sercq, ; Sercquiais: or ) is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of ...
.
In contrast to the United Kingdom, Guernsey Post
pillar box
A pillar box is a type of free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories, and, less commonly, in many members of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Cyprus, India, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, New Z ...
es can be identified by their distinctive blue colour.
History
The first
pillar box
A pillar box is a type of free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories, and, less commonly, in many members of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Cyprus, India, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, New Z ...
es in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852.
Anthony Trollope, the novelist, who was employed by the
General Post Office, trialled pillar boxes in the Channel Islands before introducing them into mainland Britain. He was influenced by roadside letter-receiving pillars used in France. Before the use of pillar boxes, on the mainland, individual
letters
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
would be taken by hand to a letter receiving house or post office, which was often a
coaching inn, a postage stamp purchased and the letter handed to the receiver or
postmaster, to connect with the
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 ...
and later the railway. In the Channel Islands, people took their letters to the
mail steamer
Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...
when it was awaiting the
tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ...
in the
harbour –
the particular problem of an island mail service then. Pillar boxes allowed letters to be posted at any time and they could then be collected when a steamer was due. They were convenient and immediately successful. However, as with many innovations, the first boxes were introduced into Jersey. One of these original pillar boxes can be seen in Union Street,
St Peter Port
St. Peter Port (french: Saint-Pierre Port) is a town and one of the ten parishes on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is the capital of the Bailiwick of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2019 was 18,958.
St. P ...
and has been maintained by Guernsey Post in its traditional red livery.
Guernsey stamps were first issued in the island during the
German Occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
of 1940–1945, when there was a great shortage of British stamps, as all ties with mainland Britain had been severed by the German authorities.
Guernsey's government, the
States of Guernsey, took over the running of postal services from the
British Government in October 1969 (as did Jersey, forming
Jersey Post
Jersey Post is the licensed universal service provider of mail service for the Bailiwick of Jersey.
History
Jersey Post was established (as the Committee for Postal Administration) by the ''Post Office (Jersey) Law 1969'', in 1969 as a resul ...
). Since then on it has regularly issued Guernsey stamps. Guernsey is postcoded as the
GY postcode area, established in 1993 as an extension of the
United Kingdom postcode system.
[Written_Answer_[87341](_blank)
/nowiki>.html" ;"title="7341">Written Answer [87341
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/nowiki> House of Commons Hansard, London, 17 December 2002, column 739W.
In 2001, the States of Guernsey commercialised the Post Office, and it became Guernsey Post Ltd and was awarded the licence to operate the reserved sector postal operation and meet the Universal Service Obligation (USO). To monitor Guernsey Post and either encourage competition in the market or where it is missing provide a controlling force the Office of Utility Regulation, otherwise known as the OUR, was created.
Guernsey Post is a member of the Small European Postal Administration Cooperation.
Postage stamps of Guernsey
Guernsey and Alderney Stamps are world-renowned for their beauty and quality.
[Mark Sargent GB Stamps.]
"Channel Islands and Isle of Man Stamps – Issued 1969 to Date"
. Retrieved 4 March 2010. The first Guernsey Postage Stamps were designed and printed during the occupation in 1941 when supplies of British stamps ran out. Over the years many aspects of island life have been commemorated and depicted on Guernsey and Alderney stamps. Topics of past philatelic issues include the sea, the natural world, agriculture and horticulture, transport, sport, Christmas, military, art and entertainment. Guernsey Stamps are produced by Guernsey Post.
References
External links
Guernsey Philatelic Bureau websiteGuernsey Post Ltd websiteOffice of Utility regulation websiteSwift – Postal Automation System
{{Postal administrations of Europe
Communications in Guernsey
Postal organizations
Postal system of the United Kingdom
Members of the Small European Postal Administration Cooperation