The Penny Black Stamp Store: Bath Postal Museum

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Bath Postal Museum

As reported by the British Philatelic Bulletin newsletter, the Bath Postal Museum, housed under the City of Bath Post Office has displays of original artefacts and objects that are excellently presented and captioned. In the Room of Firsts, it documents big moments in world postal history where Bath played a major role. One display reveals the personal story behind the famous occasion of the first stamp ever posted - the Penny Black in 1840. The museum records that it was sent by Bath postmaster Thomas Moore Musgrave's daughter Ann on 2 May, four days before the official issue date. Research showed that the letter went to the Collyer family in Peckham, South London. And on display nearby us one of only three surviving Two Penny Mulready envelopes used on the first day of issue, 6 May 1840, believed to be sent by Ann Musgrave. Also in the museum is the only surviving contract signed between Bath postmaster Ralph Allen and the Post Office in 1727, granting permission for Allen to create and run the network of cross-country postal roads that did not pass through London. Previously, all long-distance post went via the capital and was charged according to mileage covered which was an inefficient and expensive way of doing things.

Bath Postal Museum: 27 Northgate Street, (on the corner of Green St.) Bath, BA1 1AJ / Opening Times: 11.00am - 5.00pm / Monday to Saturday (11.00 am - 4.30pm in winter) / Last Entry: 4.30pm. (4.00pm in winter)

Credit: British Philatelic Bulletin Vol. 49 No. 11 July 2012

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A Brief History

Before 1st May 1840, posting a letter was a very complicated and expensive affair. It could cost the equivalent of a days wage, and it was charged by how many sheets of paper were used and how far it had to travel. Normally the recipient had to pay the cost.

Sir Roland Hill was responsible for reforming the British postal system, and as part of this a competition was held for the public to design the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. However none of the entries were thought suitable, so instead they used the profile sketch of a then 15 year old Queen Victoria. This image was used on stamps until the end of her reign. Because the Penny Black was the first postage stamp in the world, it did not show a country of origin, and to this day British stamps are the only stamps in the world that do not state what country they are from.

However, the Penny Black only remained in circulation for a year, as it was soon found that it was possible to remove the ink of the red cancellation mark and re-use the stamp, so the Treasury switched to the Penny Red and black cancellation ink.