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Description

Aim: To learn about how to send a postcard, also a short history of the UK postal system. Taken from the BB Anchors Pro Pack community C-12. As amended by Vale and South BB

Resources

• Postcards
• Stamps
• Pens/pencils
• Post box maze template
• Card

Instructions

Send a postcard:
Young people in pairs write a postcard to each other. They will need to be taught where to put the address and place the stamp. Young people should write (copy) their address onto the postcard. If there is a post-box within walking distance go there and allow members to post their cards. Ask members to bring the one they receive the following week. (This can be adapted to write to other BB companies either in the UK/Republic of Ireland or overseas. (Check the BBUK website www.boys-brigade.org.uk for contact details.)

Post Box Relay:
• Line members up in teams at one end of hall with a pile of post cards.
• At opposite end have a ‘post box’ with slit in it.
• First person runs, posts a card and then runs back and tags next boy, and so on.

Post Box Maze:
• Copy the template onto card, one per boy.
• Which card reaches the post box?

Potted History
Royal Mail was invented by King Henry VIII in 1516 as a means of keeping in contact with his kingdom. As a member of the public you could not post a letter via Royal Mail until 1635.

The original way to post a letter was to write the letter and take it to a local post office. The letter would be delivered and the receiver would pay the delivery agent a fee. The fee was 4d (1.5p).

By the time of Queen Victoria people had established a way of sending messages via the post without paying. As a result in January 1840 the penny postage system was introduced by Sir Rowland Hill. Post boxes were not introduced until 1852. The first post box being on the Island of Jersey. Post Box boxes in Britain are red, however in 2012 the post box nearest to where a British athlete lives was repainted gold if they won gold medal at the Olympic games. The most remote post box in the British Isles is on the top of a mountain on the Isle of St Kilda. the post box is only opened on Christmas Day each year (Weather permitting) and letters and cards have a special puffin post stamp applied.

As the inventor of the postage stamp Britain is the only country in the world not required to print the country name on its stamps.

For full details see the BB Anchors Pro Pack C12

Tags

• community
• post card
• post office
• postal

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