Queen Victoria appears on the stamp and 68 million are used in the first year. The world’s first adhesive postal stamp, the Penny Black, is launched. For the first time, the sender pays the postage instead of the recipient. Uniform postage rates are introduced, replacing a complicated, confusing and expensive system of tariffs. The first route is between Liverpool and Manchester thanks to an agreement between the General Post Office and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Steam-driven packet ships are introduced to deliver mail across the British Empire and the Commonwealth. The name Royal Mail is given to the service when mail coaches become a familiar sight across the country. The Post Office Act paves the way for a unified postal service across Scotland, England and Wales. It shows the date of dispatch and is designed to give confidence in the speed and reliability of the mail. It’s called the Bishop mark after the Postmaster General, Henry Bishop. A year later, the world’s first postmark is used.
The Post Office Act creates the publically owned postal service. A Letter Office is established in London and six post roads are formalised to carry mail across the country. The postal service is opened up to the general public by Charles I. Although for the next 119 years the postal service operates only for the King and the Court. Tuke establishes key post towns across the country and builds a formal postal network. Henry VIII knights Brian Tuke, the first Master of the Posts. That proud tradition of innovation continues today as we introduce new technology and digital services and expand our services at home and abroad. Royal Mail and its forerunner organisations are responsible for a number of global firsts, ranging from the Penny Black stamp to the world’s first ‘one-price-goes-anywhere’ Universal Service. One of the oldest organisations in the world, Royal Mail Group can trace its origins back over 500 years to 1516.
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