IT was an office memo that today would probably have someone rushing to HR in a fit of the vapours.
But understandably back in the late 1700s things were very different.
Postmen were armed and so there was no confusion about an order they should always have their weapons “handily hung”.
It came in a diktat from the Postmaster General which made its way to Worcester in 1793, urging mail coach staff to always ensure their weapons were “clean, well-loaded and handily hung”, while mailboxes should never be left unlocked.
Anyone found asleep on the job would be instantly dismissed.
These days, with email technology delivering words across vast distances at the touch of a button, you tend to forget what life was like in the old days – the very old days.
The first method of information distribution, barring smoke signals, banging drums, blowing things or shouting, was by messengers on horseback.
Of which the best known, although it certainly wasn’t the first, was the Pony Express in America.
Over here in England we had horse-drawn mail coaches that carried both passengers and mail and which highwaymen like Dick Turpin were apt to stop and rob.
Hence the need for posties to be armed.
In the early 19th century Worcester, which has had a postmaster since 1635, was a main staging post on the route from north to south and 17 mail and other coaches left daily for destinations as diverse as London, Bristol, Chester and Birmingham.
One of the main coaching inns was the Star and Garter in Foregate Street, later the Star Hotel and now Worcester Whitehouse, and it’s probably no coincidence that Worcester’s main post office was built opposite with the main sorting office at the rear off Sansome Walk.
The post office operated for many years on the site that stands next to Foregate Street railway bridge but PO reorganisation saw it sold off and now the building is occupied by a supermarket chain.
As the country’s roads improved in the 1800s and with better transport design, mail coaches travelled faster than ever before and crowds would gather at the Star and Garter to see the rapid change of horses.
There were stages every 10 to 12 miles and the slick organisation at the posting inns was remarkable.
Furious driving became such a common practice that an Act of Parliament in 1838 threatened convicted persons with the treadmill.
Two of the fastest coaches ever to run changed horses stopped at the Star in Worcester.
They were the rival coaches L’Hirondelle and Hibernia which ran between the port cities of Liverpool and Bristol and raced each other all the way.
Their speeds were extraordinary considering they operated on rough untarmacked roadways and their times included the stops to change horses.
In May 1832 the Hibernia left Liverpool at 6am and arrived at Worcester at 5pm at an average speed of around 11 mph while the following year the L’Hirondelle did the 136-mile journey from Liverpool to Cheltenham in nine hours 30 minutes at more than 14 mph.
Which would be a first-class letter service even today.
