First past the post

As it's founders celebrate the Bath Postal Museum's 30th anniversary, West Country Life takes a look at what visitors to the attraction can expect to see

T hirty years ago the Bath Postal Museum opened at 51 Great Pulteney Street, Bath, in grand style.

The day was marked by a magnificent mail coach proceeded along Great Pulteney Street and a hot air balloon carrying mail took off from the Recreation Ground. This was followed later by a helicopter from Yeovilton which also carried mail, and 250 pigeons took off from Bath carrying 1,000 "pigeongrams" to Gloucester.

All this took place in 1979, and three decades on friends of the museum have just celebrated its continuing success.

The Bath Postal Museum was started by Audrey and Harold Swindells, who only recently held their own celebrations to mark their golden wedding anniversary.

Audrey says: "I knew nothing about stamps when I married Harold but he ran the stamp and coin shop on Pulteney Bridge – which has now been in the family for 50 years – and I soon became interested in postal history, as it's all about communications."

The couple soon started a family but once their twins, Dave and Mike, went to nursery, Audrey went into the business and was hooked.

She says: "One day two of our customers said to me that I should open a postal museum. At the time I had no intention of doing it because I had six children by then and two of them were still at home."

Somehow the idea took hold and eventually the Swindells sold their house at Saltford and bought a handsome town house at 51 Great Pulteney Street, which had enough room for the family and to house the museum in the basement. On April 27, 1979, it was opened by the late Tom Jackson, then general secretary of the Postal Workers' Union.

Invited guests had lunch at the Royal York Hotel, originally York House, the departure point for all of Bath's mail coach services.

A splendid album of 12 special covers was created, and other marks included a Newhaven Paquebot, an HS125 locomotive, a hovercraft (Ryde, Isle of Wight), a submarine (HMS Sealion), the Honiton Post Bus and Concorde – a very special favour of the captain – as Concorde did not have a mail contract.

The day finished with tea in the Pump Room as guests of Bath City Council.

Since those early days the museum has had several moves.

In 1984 it had outgrown its Great Pulteney Street premises and moved to 8 Broad Street, thanks to the offer of a subsidised rent by B&NES Council.

This was the site of Bath's main Post Office from 1822 to 1854 and was the very place where the first recorded posting of a Penny Black took place on May 2, 1840 – four days ahead of the official date.

When it opened in 1985, the Queen Mother sent a greeting by pigeon.

In 2003, B&NES withdrew the subsidised rent, but rescue came thanks to support from all over the world and the offer by Stephen Green of Future Heritage of a 15-year lease in the new Post Office redevelopment in Green Street.

Thanks also to a grant of £238,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the museum was also able to revitalise its collections and displays.

Its exhibitions include a history of the post – the earliest known instance of post is a clay letter from ancient Egypt thought to date from about 2,000BC – and its archives hold a vast and electronic range of collections.

The museum, a registered charity, is run by volunteers and relies on entrance fees, donations, and sales from the shop to survive.

Bath Postal Museum is at 27 Northgate Street, (on the corner of Green Street), Bath. Visit www.bathpostalmuseum.co.uk