British Postal Museum and Archive

The British Postal Museum and Archive cares for the visual, written and physical records of more than 400 years of postal development. The archive is an internationally important resource for social and postal history. It includes working files, minutes and reports on all aspects of Royal Mail activities, such as postal transport, uniform, postage rates and postal technology. There are also staff records and maps, posters, artwork and photographs.    

The Royal Mail Archive contains one of the greatest collections of British stamps and philately from the Penny Black onwards. It also has original stamp artwork, for designs that were adopted as stamps, and for those that were not.

An exhibition called Elizabeth: Queen And Icon celebrates the monarch's life through stamps, up to and including the 2006 issue celebrating her 80th birthday.

The BPMA has its museum store in Debden, Essex, where it keeps its large objects, including letterboxes, vehicles and uniforms. The Store is open on selected days during the year - please see the website www.postalheritage.org.uk for dates

Colne Valley Postal History Museum

The collection here has been built up over many years by one man fascinated with different post boxes. It now includes more than 70 ex-British Post Office letter boxes, together with stamp vending machines, documents and associated artefacts. The museum houses the second-largest private collection of post boxes in the UK and is an invaluable resource for teaching and historical research.

Bath Postal Museum

The Postal Museum tells the history of 4,000 years of communication, from clay mail to e-mail, and the museum is housed in the building that the very first penny black stamp was sent from! Saturday workshops and educational visits incorporate a hands-on approach to learning where visitors can get involved with Victorian quill writing or book making. The museum also has a frequently changing temporary exhibition room. 

Starting at 2,000BC, displays cover the development of letter writing, the carrying of letters and their cost. The story of Ralph Allen's revolutionary postal system and John Palmer's innovative mail coach organisation are also told. Reconstructed Victorian and 1930s Post Offices show the development of the Post Office. A unique exhibition on Airmail and collections ranging from letter boxes to Ship Wreck Mail are part of the permanent exhibitions. The library is available for research (by prior arrangement).