The BPMA has, for the past year, been working in partnership with Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust to recreate a working Victorian Post Office at Ironbridge’s Blists Hill site. It is above this that the exhibition is opened to the public on Thursday 22 October.
Moving away from the Victorian era, this will be a contemporary exhibition exploring the role of the post office in the community throughout history. It will look at the services the Post Office has provided over the years and how these have changed, the different ways mail has been delivered in the community and the important and central role the post office has played. The exhibition will use many objects from the BPMA’s extensive collection and is a unique opportunity to see many pieces from the collection in one place. This is the first time there has been a modern exhibition at Blists Hill and it is also the first permanent exhibition for the BPMA.
The exhibition will broadly look at four different areas: Post Office Counter Services; Delivering the Mail; Letter Boxes and Changing Times.
The wide range of services that have been offered over the counter at the Post Office will be explored in the first section; followed by the history of the delivery of mail in the community and then how letter boxes have developed to suit the needs of the local area. The final section will examine the story of the UK postal service to the present day; the loss of Royal Mail’s monopoly and the rise of competitor mail companies.
The Museum of the Post Office in the Community will features a Hen and Chicks pentacycle and a BSA Bantam, probably the most well-known make of motorcycle used by the Post Office. It also include objects such as letter boxes, home safes, Post Office Savings Bank books and an early telegram.
A Passport to all ten Ironbridge Gorge Museums valid for twelve months and multiple daytime return visits costs £19.95 for adults, £15.95 for the sixty plus, £12.95 for children (up to 18 years in full time education) and £54.95 for families. For those on a shorter time scale, individual admission is available into any of the sites.
The museums are open seven days a week from 10am until 5pm; activities and workshops vary day-to-day and some carry an extra charge in addition to the museum admission fee. For further information, contact the Ironbridge Tourist Information Centre on Tel: 01952 884 391 or visit www.ironbridge.org.uk . The Gorge is easily reached via the M6 and M54 motorways exiting at Telford (M54 junction 4 or 6).
