| How do we ever manage without home delivery? The | | | | This was followed a few days later by the two-penny |
| amount and scope of items which you can have | | | | stamp, and what has since become a worldwide |
| delivered right to your door these days are | | | | means of signifying payment for the carriage of a |
| mind-boggling. | | | | letter or parcels was initiated. |
| It all started when Rowland Hill pioneered the first letter | | | | Such stamps, however, were not approved for |
| post service in 1839. He dreamed of a cheap and | | | | overseas use. Instead, the General Post Office (GPO) |
| efficient mail service which was affordable to | | | | insisted on a hand-stamp showing the name of the city |
| everyone, and was the first person to suggest the | | | | or country where the item was posted. |
| adoption of a mark on a letter to show that the cost | | | | Today we have a vast array of stamps available |
| of its carriage had been pre-paid. | | | | around the world and, of course, a flourishing hobby |
| He also showed how low the cost of transporting | | | | has been born out of collecting them. However, with |
| individual items of mail could be, and suggested the | | | | the growth of pre-printed stationery and envelopes, |
| method of charging which is still largely in use today, | | | | stamps are not as widespread as they used to be. |
| using weight as the basis for the cost, and not the | | | | Home delivery too, has evolved through the years, and |
| number of sheets. The initial postage charge agreed | | | | whereas we once relied on horses, and later vans, to |
| by the Government of the time was one old penny | | | | deliver our post, now much of it is trunked to large mail |
| (0.5 pence), and the use of a label or stationary | | | | delivery hubs in massive lorries or, if coming from |
| marked as pre-paid would denote that the payment | | | | abroad, brought in by air. |
| had been made. | | | | Yet despite the globalisation of the world, and other |
| A public competition, organised in 1839 with the aim of | | | | technologies bringing people much closer together, the |
| devising a suitable design for the adhesive labels or | | | | principle of using a stamp to denote and pay for the |
| pre-printed paper to be used for the service provided | | | | home delivery of items large and small lives on. |
| no winners. Instead, Rowland Hill's own ideas were | | | | Home delivery itself, however, is much more |
| adopted, and he worked alongside a firm of printers to | | | | sophisticated, with modern computer technology able |
| put them into production. | | | | to track a letter through from posting to delivery, and |
| As a result, the first penny stamps, the now | | | | allowing both the sender and recipient to monitor its |
| world-famous Penny Black, went on sale in May 1840. | | | | progress throughout its journey. |