Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

The Clyde from the Source to the Sea
Chapter V. Postal Services


The amount of work got through by a post-office should be a good indication of the business character of the town or city in which it is established, and the Glasgow post-office is an excellent illustration of the rapid progress of the city from time to time; and as showing the extent of the resources of this establishment we find a volume published by the post-office officials in 1887 and called The Queens Head, from which we can gather at a glance a great deal of valuable information about the rise and progress of postal work in Glasgow.

It appears that in 1695 the Scottish Parliament established a letter post, and for a time the letters were wholly conveyed on foot. In the year 1711 one post-office system for both England and Scotland was established. The first direct London and Glasgow mail was established by coach in 1788. Apparently the first Glasgow post-office was started in the year 1787, over one hundred years ago. It was situated in Princes Street, and looking at a copy of the first Glasgow Directory we find that the staff consisted of five persons, viz.: a postmaster, a head-clerk, an under-clerk, a letter-carrier, and another whose functions are not stated. After some changes of place, in 1810 the post-office was situated in Nelson Street, and citizens still living can recall their delight as hoys when seeing the mail-coach arrive in the Trongate, and the important guard get off his perch, pull out his mail-hags, and walk up Nelson [Street to the office, the pistols or blunderbusses which were his companions on the road being he held with proper respect hy the onlookers.

In 1840 a removal was made to Glassford Street, where many can remember the piazza or arcade front to the street. This was a marked period in postal history, as in this year the uniform penny postage came into operation and postage stamps were first used.1 In 1857 the post-office found its present home in George Square.

The following interesting tabular statement of the staff is given in The Queens Head:—

The number of letters now dealt with is about 2,500,000 weekly. The revenue is £380,000, and expenditure £107,000. Besides ordinary letter work, post-offices have not only to deal with money-orders, &rc., but with all kinds of parcels since the introduction of the parcel-post system, and with telegraph messages.


Return to the Book Index Page


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast