A plaque at 'Jigsaw', New Bond Street, Bath. In what used to be the main post office, to Ralph Allen and John Palmer, two pioneers of the postal service in the eighteenth century.
"
Ralph Allen (1693 – 29 June 1764) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and was notable for his reforms to the British postal system.
Allen was born in Cornwall but moved to Bath to work in the post office and within ten years becoming the postmaster. He made the system more efficient and took over contracts for the mail system in other parts of England. He also bought local stone mines and had Prior Park built as his house to show off the versatility of the local Bath stone, using the old post office as his town house. With the architect John Wood, the Elder the stone he mined was used in the building work for the development of the Georgian city.
After his death he was buried in a pyramid-topped tomb in Claverton churchyard. He is commemorated in the names of streets and schools in the city of Bath and was the model for Squire Allworthy in the novel Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.
At the age of 27 Allen took control of the Cross and Bye Posts in the South West under a seven-year contract with the General Post Office, although he had no official title. At the end of this period he had not made a profit, only breaking even. But he had the courage to continue – with breathtaking success.
Over the next few years he reformed the postal service. He realised that post boys were delivering items of mail along their route without them being declared and that this was lost profit. He introduced a "signed for system" that prevented the malpractice. He also improved efficiency by not requiring mail to go via London.
Ralph Allen's reputation grew and he took over more and more of the English postal system, signing contracts every seven years until he died aged 71. It is estimated that he saved the Post Office £1,500,000 over a 40-year period. He won the patronage of General Wade in 1715, when he disclosed details of a Jacobite uprising in Cornwall."
SOURCE - (
visit link)
"
John Palmer of Bath (1742 – 16 August 1818) was a theatre owner and instigator of the British system of mail coaches that was the beginning of the great British post office reforms with the introduction of an efficient mail coach delivery service in Great Britain during the late 18th century. He was Mayor of Bath on two occasions and Comptroller General of the Post Office, and later served as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bath between 1801 and 1807.
The postal delivery service in Britain had existed in the same form for about 150 years—from its introduction in 1635, mounted carriers had ridden between "posts" where the postmaster would remove the letters for the local area before handing the remaining letters and any additions to the next rider. The riders were frequent targets for robbers, and the system was inefficient.
Because Palmer made much use of stagecoach services between cities in the course of his business, and noted that it seemed far more efficient than the system of mail delivery then in operation, so that he could travel from Bath to London in a single day while the mail took three days. It occurred to him that this coach service could be developed into a national mail delivery service, so in 1782 he suggested to the Post Office in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The coach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later.
Impressed by the trial run, Pitt authorised the creation of new routes. Within the month the service had been extended from London to Norwich, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and by the end of 1785 services to the following major towns and cities of England and Wales had also been linked: Leeds, Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Holyhead and Carlisle. A service to Edinburgh was added the next year, and Palmer was rewarded by being made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office. By 1797 there were forty-two routes."
SOURCE - (
visit link)
The plaque reads:
1693 - 1818
RALPH ALLEN
and
JOHN PALMER
Citizens of Bath
The Pioneers
of the
Postal Service of the
Eighteenth Century
Ralph Allen 1693 - 1764
Reorganized and perfected
Bye and Cross Post which
afforded intercommunication
between Provincial Towns.
John Palmer 1742 - 1818
Developed the Mail Coach
service throughout the Country.