The History of the Postmarks of the British Isles from 1840 to 1876 - John Hendy (1909)

CHAPTER XI.
TRAVELLING POST OFFICE.
The earliest Travelling Post Office made its first journey from London to Preston on
the 1st October, 1838, two mails only being dispatched fi-om London (Euston) daily;
the first or day mail at 1 1 a.m., and the night mail at 8.30 p.m. The night mail occupied
five hours and a half on the journey to Birmingham, but the day mail not quite so long.
These two mails were worked throughout, from London to Preston, by a staff of fourteen
officers, known as " railway clerks," assisted by a number of mail-guards. The former
performed the sorting duty, and the latter took charge of the bags. As the railway
system extended, so the Travelling Post Offices grew. The London and Preston Travelling
Post Office was followed in May, 1845, by the Rugby and Newcastle-on-Tyne ; the
mails were conveyed by the London and 'Birmingham Railway as far as Rugby, by the
Midland Railway to Derby, by the North Midland Railway and the York and North
Midland Railway to York, and thence by the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway to
Newcastle. The distance by this route was 306 miles, and the journey occupied about
twelve hours. These were followed by Travelling Post Offices between Bristol and
Exeter (May, 1847), and between Gloucester and Tamworth (July, 1850). Tamworth
then became the point at which all mails arriving from the West of England, Wales,
Ireland, and Scotland, for distribution to Yorkshire, Newcastle, and the North and
Norlh-Eastern districts of England, concentrated. The Travelling Post Office, which
hitherto ran from Rugby, now commenced its journey from Tamworth.
The principle upon which the mail service on the railways had been framed was to
concentrate or mass the correspondence, as far as practicable, on the trunk lines or
" arteries " which were considered to afford the public generally the largest amount of
postal convenience. One result of this arrangement was that circuitous routes had in
many instances to be adopted to certain districts to which more direct routes were open.
In the earlier work on "Postmarks" will be found two types of stamps which were in
use in the first Travelling Post Offices ; but these were evidently of a temporary nature,
for within a few years they had ceased to be used.
Rowland Hill, early in 1850, with the object 01 as far as possible abolishing Sunday
labour in the London Chief Office, obtained sanction to arrange the work so as to have
the greatest practicable amount of sorting done at night in TraveUing Post Offices, the
majority of which were run specially for the work. The. pursuit of this object led to
what Rowland Hill then, at least, considered a "singular device," viz. : "That
mail trains on Saturday night should take up letters
the down
from towns too near to London to
allow of their being sorted on the up journey, and convey them in the first instance in a
direction opposite to their final destination, but subsequently transferring them to the up
mail trains for conveyance to London.'' By this arrangement the required opportunity
for sorting the letters was obtained, without any loss of time whatever to the public, and
gave relief to the Sunday labour in the London Office. These particular mails were
known as " Sunday Sorting Tenders." The duty commenced in the down mail trains on
each Saturday night on the following lines of railway : North Western, Great Western,
South Western, South Eastern, and to Cambridge and Ipswich, two officers being
employed in each sorting tender. One set of officers worked outward nn Saturday night
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