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People at Work: The Postman and the Postal Service
In this carefully planned reference book, interesting and accurate information is given about the Postal Service, its history and its development to meet present day needs.
Even children whose reading experience is limited will be encouraged by the superb, full-colour illustrations and relatively simple text to find out for themselves about this vital service, and at the same time gain extra reading practice.
Even children whose reading experience is limited will be encouraged by the superb, full-colour illustrations and relatively simple text to find out for themselves about this vital service, and at the same time gain extra reading practice.
52 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 15, 2018
The days when you didn't have to measure the size and weight of your letter. Pure nostalgia. 😊
January 27, 2019
I must still be a child at heart for I found this self-styled 'relatively simple text' most interesting and informative.
Beginning with the King's special messenger over 500 years ago, through post-boys who called at post-houses and dealt with postmasters, stage coaches, and the danger of highwaymen, mail-coaches such as 'The Bristol Flyer, that in 1816 could travel from London to Bristol in less than 12 hours, posting houses where people collected their mail, to train delivery, first started in 1830 when a mail bag went from Liverpool to Manchester, the Anthony Trollope development of the letter box, travelling post offices and finally to electronic sorting, the history is extensively covered.
How things have changed from the publication of this book to date is clearly demonstrated as the reader is brought up to the date of publication (1975) and, reading between the lines, it is not always for the better!
January 2019: I had forgotten that I had read this book but reading it again, I found it just as enjoyable. Anachronistic perhaps with modern technology and working habits changing and with so many alternatives now to Royal Mail, it does gives an excellent portrayal of how the Postman and the Postal Service worked in days gone by, from the days of King's Messengers carrying the mail through stagecoach deliveries to the railways moving the mail along. Indeed, it was 1830 when a mail bag was first carried from Liverpool to Manchester.
Before the introduction of the railway, one of the fastest of the mail coaches was known as 'The Bristol Flyer' and in 1816 it could travel from London to Bristol in less than 12 hours! This compared favourably with the stage coach that carried mail from London to Bristol in 1784 as it did the 120-mile journey in 17 hours … and that was deemed 'very fast travelling' in those days.
Emptying postboxes and changing the metal labels thereon now seems to be a thing of the past as all the ones in Blackpool now have a blank area where that label used to go. And it seems a long time since the days of the General Post Office, GPO, when mail was delivered to many outlying places by boat, by postmen on bicycles or even, apparently, by postmen on ponies to places on Dartmoor … but thankfully whatever the method the mail always got through! (Shades of the Pony Express, 'The mail must go through.')
An updated version of this book would, I feel sure, not be quite so interesting.
Beginning with the King's special messenger over 500 years ago, through post-boys who called at post-houses and dealt with postmasters, stage coaches, and the danger of highwaymen, mail-coaches such as 'The Bristol Flyer, that in 1816 could travel from London to Bristol in less than 12 hours, posting houses where people collected their mail, to train delivery, first started in 1830 when a mail bag went from Liverpool to Manchester, the Anthony Trollope development of the letter box, travelling post offices and finally to electronic sorting, the history is extensively covered.
How things have changed from the publication of this book to date is clearly demonstrated as the reader is brought up to the date of publication (1975) and, reading between the lines, it is not always for the better!
January 2019: I had forgotten that I had read this book but reading it again, I found it just as enjoyable. Anachronistic perhaps with modern technology and working habits changing and with so many alternatives now to Royal Mail, it does gives an excellent portrayal of how the Postman and the Postal Service worked in days gone by, from the days of King's Messengers carrying the mail through stagecoach deliveries to the railways moving the mail along. Indeed, it was 1830 when a mail bag was first carried from Liverpool to Manchester.
Before the introduction of the railway, one of the fastest of the mail coaches was known as 'The Bristol Flyer' and in 1816 it could travel from London to Bristol in less than 12 hours! This compared favourably with the stage coach that carried mail from London to Bristol in 1784 as it did the 120-mile journey in 17 hours … and that was deemed 'very fast travelling' in those days.
Emptying postboxes and changing the metal labels thereon now seems to be a thing of the past as all the ones in Blackpool now have a blank area where that label used to go. And it seems a long time since the days of the General Post Office, GPO, when mail was delivered to many outlying places by boat, by postmen on bicycles or even, apparently, by postmen on ponies to places on Dartmoor … but thankfully whatever the method the mail always got through! (Shades of the Pony Express, 'The mail must go through.')
An updated version of this book would, I feel sure, not be quite so interesting.
July 7, 2023
This is a Charming retro book for postman relative!
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December 11, 2016Found in the home of a postman friend, which I'm taking for an imprimatur.
July 11, 2024
Pure nostalgie dit Ladybird-boekje uit 1965, ik las ze graag als kind. Ik weet nu weer alles van de geschiedenis van de post en alle moderne technieken die ontwikkeld zijn daarvoor in 1965, dat was ook echt interessant. Geweldig, ook die illustraties erin!
'In some of the bigger sorting offices, the sorting of letters can be done by machines. One man working a machine can sort many more letters in the same time.'
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews