Museum of the Post Office opens near Ironbridge
On the day thousands of Royal Mail workers were preparing to strike in an escalating row over pay, working conditions and reform, a museum launched in Shropshire celebrating the history of the post office.
Curator Chris Taft, from the British Postal Museum & Archive, said the decision to open the Museum of the Post Office in the Community, at Blists Hill Victorian Town, near Ironbridge, on the same day as the industrial action was an “unfortunate coincidence”.
“We’re not part of Royal Mail,” he said. “The industrial action is not something of our making or anything to do with us.”
It has taken six months to create the £100,000 Museum of the Post Office in the Community, which is located above the newly built post office at Blists Hill and is the first permanent exhibition by the BPMA.
They were given the space by Blists Hill after donating £300,000 for the building of the post office, which opened in April and is already proving one of the more popular attractions.
The exhibition will explore the role of the post office in the community, looking at four different areas – Post Office Counter Services, Delivering the Mail, Letter Boxes and Changing Times.
One of the more exciting exhibits is a Hen & Chicks pentacycle which looks like a penny farthing with stabilisers.
Also on show is a BSA Bantam motorcycle used by telegram boys in the 1970s plus a variety of pre-cursors to the famous red postal box including the London Ornate, a special green and gold design.
A major part of the exhibition relies on spoken memories.
