On 4th December 2009, BPMA staff and guests made their way up to Blists Hill for the official launch of the Museum of the Post Office in the Community. Among the guests were David Wright, MP for Telford, and members of the local postal history society. Guests enjoy festive food and mulled wine before the speeches Roger Green from Royal Mail using a special cancellation mark to commemorate the occasion. The event started with mulled wine and... 

by Freya Folåsen, Cataloguer (Collections) The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) museum collection has just about any object type one can think of when it comes to the British postal service: postal stationary, pens and stamps; letterboxes and sorting machines; vehicles and uniforms. A very large part of the collection consists of handstamps: these are implements used to apply a postmark by hand. The BPMA has several thousand handstamps... 

Swindon is largest town in Wiltshire with a population over 170,000.  However, before 1840 Swindon was a market town serving the surrounding dairy farms with fewer than 2500 inhabitants.  Its growth and population boom can be seen as a direct result of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s decision to choose Swindon as the site for the railway works of the Great Western Railway (GWR). At its peak in the mid 20th the railway works were employing over... 

Dr Adrian Steel Dr Adrian Steel has been appointed as the new Director of The British Postal Museum & Archive with immediate effect. The Director will be responsible for the leadership and the strategic development and direction of the BPMA. Brian Goodey, chairman of the Trustees of the BPMA said today “We are delighted that Adrian has taken on the role of Director. The BPMA is entering a challenging period that includes its planned...