UK A-Z Part 1

New stamps issued today by Royal Mail celebrate some of the United Kingdom’s best known and most loved landmarks. UK A-Z Part 1 consists of 12 1st class stamps featuring iconic structures from The Angel of the North to Lindisfarne Priory.

The Angel of the North – a contemporary steel sculpture designed by Antony Gormley, located just outside Gateshead.

Blackpool Tower – a tourist attraction in Lancashire. It was opened to the public on 14 May 1894 and was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Carrick-a-Rede -a rope suspension bridge near Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Originally built by salmon fishermen, the bridge links the mainland to the tiny Carrick Island.

Downing Street – probably the most famous front door in the world, 10 Downing Street is the headquarters of Her Majesty’s Government and the official residence and office of the Prime Minister.

Edinburgh Castle – dominating the skyline of Edinburgh, this castle is positioned atop the volcanic Castle Rock. There has been a royal castle here since the reign of David I in the 12th century.

Forth Bridge – a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. It was opened on 4 March 1890.

Glastonbury Tor – a hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, which features the roofless St. Michael’s Tower. The site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is believed by some to be the Avalon of Arthurian legend.

Harlech Castle – located in Gwynedd, Wales, Harlech is a concentric castle, constructed atop a cliff close to the Irish Sea. It was built by Edward I during his conquest of Wales.

Ironbridge – a village on the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge, in Shropshire. The village developed beside, and takes its name from, the famous Iron Bridge, a 30 metre (100 ft) cast iron bridge that was built across the river there in 1779. The bridge was the first cast iron arch bridge in the world.

Jodrell Bank – and an internationally renowned landmark in the world of astronomy. The giant Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank has been quietly probing the depths of space since 1957. It is still one of the biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world.

Kursaal – a 20th Century entertainment venue that was at the cutting edge of architectural design. The Kursaal in Southend, Essex included the latest attractions and rides in its heyday before World War II. After a post-war decline, the building was redeveloped in the 1990s and is now a listed building.

Lindisfarne Priory – a monastery on the tidal island of Lindisfarne off England’s north-east coast (also known as Holy Island). It was founded by Irish born Saint Aidan c. AD 635 and was the base for Christian evangelising in the North of England until the 9th Century.

Two different pictorial ‘first day of issue postmarks’ are available for this issue, featuring Edinburgh Castle and Blackpool Tower.

UK A-Z Part 1 stamps and products are available from the Royal Mail website. UK A-Z Part 2, covering letters M to Z, will be issued in April 2012.

Museum of the Post Office in the Community Receives Accreditation

by Chris Taft, Curator

The Museum of the Post Office in the Community, which is managed by The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA), has been awarded full Accreditation status. The Museum is situated on the Blists Hill Victorian Town site, at Ironbridge near Telford. This is a major achievement for the BPMA and one which all involved should feel justly proud of. The Museum is now an Accredited Museum, this is a reflection of the fact that the museum and its collections are cared for and the organisation governed to national standards set by the government agency for museums, the Museums Libraries and Archives council (MLA).

The Museum of the Post Office in the Community, Blists Hill Victorian Town, Ironbridge

To become an Accredited Museum applicants must demonstrate good practice across a number of areas including access to the collections, visitor services, collections management and documentation, museum governance and good forward planning. The BPMA had to demonstrate it met these standards when applying to the scheme and the application was followed up by two site visits, one to Freeling House where the BPMA are based and one to the Museum at Blists Hill. The assessor looks closely at the management of the museum and ensures staff have a good awareness of best practice and use this when managing the collections. The application is then studied and considered by a panel made up of experience museum professionals. Ultimately the panel can award provisional status and recommend areas for improvement to allow full Accreditation to be achieved but for the BPMA the panel agreed that full Accreditation could be awarded. This is not something all museums can achieve.

For those that have been with us at the BPMA since the closure of the National Postal Museum this achievement comes on the back of something started back then. When the Museum closed it had provisional Registration status (Registration was the forerunner of Accreditation). This it held till earlier this year. Until the opening of the Museum of the Post office in the Community in October 2009 the BPMA were unable to demonstrate full achievement of the standard as it did not have the public facing museum. The Museum at Blists Hill answered this and it is through this site the Accreditation has been achieved.

The BPMA can use this achievement to help support funding applications and to show to potential sponsors that it can run an Accredited Museum.

Since its opening in October 2009 the Museum has proved very successful with over 100,000 visitors going through the door. Into 2011 the BPMA plans to capitalise on Accreditation and seek ways of running events in partnership with the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust who runs Blists Hill. The BPMA also plans to run some evaluation of the exhibition and seek ways to better promote the Museum.

The BPMA at Blists Hill – July update

by Alison Norris, Ironbridge Project Assistant

Following a great deal of work by BPMA staff, the contemporary BPMA museum at Blists Hill Victorian town, Shropshire is due to open in late September. Blists Hill is one of ten sites run by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (IGMT), and receives around 200,000 visitors a year. This means that the BPMA will now be able to show parts of its unique collection to a great many more people.

The Blists Hill Post Office

The Museum of the Post Office in the Community can be found above the Blists Hill Victorian Post Office on Canal Street. Canal Street was carefully constructed earlier this year, with some buildings being moved brick by brick from original locations, others recreated using the IGMT archive, and each has been fitted out to show a selection of trades, industries and professions from the Victorian era. Many of these buildings are manned by staff in period costume that interpret the contents and demonstrate their functions.

The BPMA Museum of the Post Office in the Community

The museum will be split in to four different sections, each exploring a different theme around the Post Office in the Community.

As well as images and objects, there will also be three audio booths throughout the museum. In each booth, visitors will be able to listen to many different types of people who have either worked at, or used the Post Office, and their thoughts on how it has affected them and those around them.

Post Office Counter Services

A timeline will tell the story of the wide range of services that have been offered over the counter at the Post Office. It will cover services such as pensions, Postal Orders, National Savings Bank, telegrams, telephones and TV licences. A display case will hold objects such as home safes, Post Office Savings Bank books and an early telegram, all of which will help bring depth to the timeline.

Delivering the Mail

The story of the delivery of mail in the community will be made up of three sub-sections. These will cover the local ‘postie’ and their role in the community, delivery equipment such as carts and cycles, and the Post Bus service. 

The Letter Carrier

This section will outline the history of the delivery of letters in the community and the evolution of the letter carrier of the early 18^th century to the postman / woman of today. A display of hats will demonstrate changes that took place in the uniforms of letter carriers and postmen.

Delivery Equipment

The Hen & Chicks is one of the key objects on display, and will be in this section. Visitors will also be able to see a BSA Bantam motorcycle, fondly remembered by many messenger boys that rode them. More modern electric vehicle trials by Royal Mail will also be looked at. 

Stour Valley Post Bus

The Post Bus

Introduced in 1967, the Post Bus can provide a vital service to rural communities. Here, its influence and decline will be explored.

Letter Boxes

In this section visitors will be able to see a number of types of letter boxes, all of which have, or still do, provide an important service to the community. When pillar boxes were introduced in 1852, they provided convenient and easy posting facilities but only served large towns and cities. In 1857 a cheaper type of box was introduced to serve more rural communities, this was called the wall box.  Lamp boxes were originally introduced in 1896 in fashionable London squares for residents who wanted late night posting facilities but are now more commonly seen in rural areas.

Pillar Box. Moor Park, Hertfordshire

Changing Times

The final section will conclude the exhibition by telling the story of the UK postal service today and the loss of Royal Mail’s monopoly and rise of competitor mail companies.

Building the Exhibition

Following a competitive tender process, the BPMA appointed the Hub as the fit-out contractors for the Blists Hill exhibition.

Based in Birmingham, the Hub was established four years ago and has been involved in a number of well-known exhibitions and projects. Most recently they have worked on elements of the Ceramics Galleries at the V&A, which will open in September 2009.

Further information and how to get there

Blists Hill is part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust. The Ironbridge Gorge is on the River Severn, 5 miles (8km) south of Telford town centre in Shropshire.

Take junction 4 from the M54. Follow brown and white signs to Ironbridge Gorge.

Once on the A442 follow signs for Blists Hill Museums.

Please remember that the BPMA exhibition will not be opening until late September 2009.

Contact details

For more information on directions, or the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust, please go to www.ironbridge.org.uk

To find out more about the exhibition itself, please visit our website www.postalheritage.org.uk/ironbridge. Or contact Alison Norris (Ironbridge Project Assistant) at alison.norris@postalheritage.org.uk or 020 7239 5174.