Bath Postal Museum

About this activity

The Bath Postal Museum is where the whole family can explore the fascinating history of the Royal Mail, with impressive archives that are home to a vast range of objects and digital information rarely seen by the public!

From the history of the iconic red postbox, the postal service during Roman times, to the people who made the service possible, it's all there for the learning at the Bath Postal Museum!

During your time at the Bath Postal Museum, you can see actual drawings of ancient Egyptian writing tools that were found in in the tomb of Mereuka at Saqqara, all dating back to around 2330 BC which is incredibly impressive! You can even seen a Sumerian tablet in it’s original envelope on display.

There are also examples of the history of the postal service in classic novels! Did you know that when Jane Austen took up her quill pen in her classic novel Northanger Abbey, she described a cross-written letter which had been received (which is quite a rare thing today!). You can even see one on display at the Museum.

It's quite a sight as it's near impossible to read - the text has been written both horizontally and vertically on the page (hence: cross written!) in order to save money on postage costs! 

You can learn all about how a man named Palmer  improved the network of Royal Mail coaches in back 1784, and it was these coaches that actually became the fastest and safest mode of travel - that is until railways were widely developed during the 1830s.

Kids can learn about how Charles Dickens wrote detailed descriptions of mail coach journeys in his novels, and even how the slowness of life was excitingly transformed by men named Allen and Palmer and their organisational abilities to improve the system!

A fascinating deep dive into the history of something we take for granted in every day life!