PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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PENNY AND TWOPENNY POSTS (1812-1840)
During 1812 the local organisation of the Posts was reviewed and in or about August 1812 the services to East Stonehouse and Saltash became Penny Posts. Even Ivybridge, to the east of Plymouth, was on the Penny Post network, apparently because the Reverend Yonge of that town was constantly corresponding with his son who was the Rector at Anthony, just west of Torpont. This arrangement seems to have run from July 1816 until 1820. There was also a local Penny Post to the villages around Ivybridge. [1] One curiosity of the local post to Dock at that time was brought to the Postmaster-General’s notice in 1813 by Quartermaster-Sergeant William Gray. He complained that the patients at the Stoke Royal Military Hospital were having to pay a penny for their letters under the Dock to Stoke local Penny Post while the patients at the Royal Naval Hospital and the soldiers at the Royal Marine Barracks in East Stonehouse, who were on the Plymouth to Dock Post were not being charged the extra penny for their letters. It was ruled that they were not to be charged this penny unless the letters were addressed specifically to Stoke or East Stonehouse. [1] 1818 On April 6th 1818 a Penny Post was started between East Stonehouse and Plymouth Dock. However, at the end of the year it was changed into a Twopenny Post. [1] 1820 Representations were made about the post between Plymouth and Plymouth Dock in 1820 and as a result a new Twopenny service was instituted. [2] 1821 The Penny Post service between Plymouth and Ivybridge ceased in 1821. [2] 1822/1823 At the end of 1822 the Post Office Surveyor recommended that Receiving Houses be commenced at Knackersknowle (Crownhill) and Tamerton Foliot. Their Post was conveyed from Plymouth to Knackersknowle by the messenger for Tavistock and from there it was to be carried by messenger to Tamerton. This Post seems to have been started on April 5th 1823. [1] 1823 There was a 2d post between Plymouth, East Stonehouse and Dock. The first was despatched from Plymouth at 5.30am; the second at 3pm. From Dock the post was sent to Plymouth at 11am and at 6.10pm by special messenger ‘who delivers the letters according to their address’. [3] 1829 A private messenger was still travelling from Turnchapel to Plymouth as late as 1829, when a new resident of the village, a Captain Richards, wrote to the Postmaster-General complaining of the arrangement and requested that Turnchapel once again have a Receiving House. The Surveyor visited the area and reported back to Headquarters that: ‘A woman (appointed and approved by the inhabitants of Plymstock) calls at the Plymouth Post Office every day, Sundays excepted, for their letters which do not average more than 4 per day – the letters are invariably applied for at 7am in the summer and 8 in the winter, and the delivery is accomplished before 10 o’clock. The woman does not return with the back-letters, as they are not sufficiently numerous to pay her for her trouble and to repay the expense of the ferry’. [1] Further petitions from other titled residents, however, soon changed the mind of the Post Office and at the end of 1829 a Receiving House was established at Oreston and a messenger was employed to make the journey into Plymouth to collect the letters. He carried the outgoing letters and was due to arrive at Plymouth Post Office at 5.30am to meet the 6.15am mail coach to London. He then left Plymouth at 7am with the mail from Bristol, Bath and Cornwall, which he delivered in the Plymstock area before returning to Plymouth by 5pm with the letters for other places in South Devon. There he rested until 7pm, when he once again returned to Oreston with letters from London. Presumably he then delivered them. [1] He was expected to walk between 17 and 18 miles per day, over 15 hours, for a weekly wage of twelve shillings. He was allowed £3 10s per year for the ferry charges between Oreston and Cattedown and Hooe and Turnchapel. [1] 1832 A Penny Post from Plymouth Dock to New Passage, Millbrook and Cawsand was started in 1832. [2] 1834 This was followed in 1834 by new Penny Post services between Plymouth and Jump (Roborough), Compton, Crabtree and Horrabridge; and between Plymouth Dock and Landrake and Saint German’s. [2] 1836 / 1838 In 1836 the legality of the 2d post outside London was questioned and legal opinion was sought. As a result the 2d post was reduced to 1d. It is not known what effect this had on the service between Plymouth and Dock. However, in 1838 a new general postage charge of 2d was introduced for a single letter carried a distance of not exceeding 8 miles. [2] 1839 On December 5th 1839 the Uniform Fourpenny Post was introduced for letters weighing less than half an ounce. This lasted only until January 10th 1840, when the Uniform Penny Post was started. [2] Sources:
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