Mansfield's Victorian Postal District

Mansfield was a Post Town serving many surrounding villages and hamlets. From the eighteenth century and probably before, the town stood on the ancient highway between London and Richmond in Yorkshire, and was a main staging post for the mail. With the demise of turnpike roads and the development of the railways during the nineteenth century, the town’s importance as a main staging post diminished, and finally disappeared with the ceasing of the Worksop Mail Coach in 1871. From then, the town became responsible only for its own mail collection and delivery, which continued to expand considerably.

The extent of the Mansfield Postal District was set by The Postmaster General, who was given authority as part of the introduction of the uniform post, in The Act For the Regulations of the Duties of Postage 10th August 1840. His authority to change boundaries can be found in the Mansfield Council minutes of the 3rd February 1896 when the Council asked him to reconsider his decision to remove Glapwell and Scarcliffe from the Mansfield postal district. His reply read to the Council on the 8th April 1896 stated that the present arrangements were satisfactory to the inhabitants, and the Duke of Norfolk [Postmaster General], regretted that it was not practicable to effect the wishes of the Council.

An extent of the Mansfield’s postal district has been determined using Indexes to the Postmaster Generals minute books (in these the ‘Mansfield Postal District’ is identified as a separate entry). The location of the adjoining villages listed under ‘Mansfield’ were used to determine the extent of Mansfield’s Postal District. These villages show how the size and extent of the Mansfield Postal District varied between 1837 and 1901. Those green and blue were transferred from Mansfield, to Nottingham and Chesterfield respectively during this period.

Mansfield Postal District in Victorian Times
Malcolm Marples

Comments about this page

  • A good past friend who I knew as uncle Harry was a cousin of George Neville, they were well known, The family came to Mansfield as far as Louie Neville told me to take the postal contract, they came from Nottingham, according to Louie the family had a gun or two for protection,

    By Mark Wilson (08/11/2019)

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