This 1:8 scale model of the Holyhead Royal Mail coach was shown by H Jones at a Harrogate exhibition. The Royal Mail was originally a means of delivering messages for the monarchy. In 1635 it was opened to the public on the payment of a fee. At that time the mail was carried by lone riders on horseback. They were very vulnerable to highwaymen and frequently robbed.

Mail coaches were introduced in the 1780s to reduce the number of robberies and to speed up the service. The coaches had heavily armed guards and the mail was carried in a locked box

and so was a much more difficult target for robbers.

The idea of mail coaches came from a theatre owner in Bath, John Palmer, who had used coaches to convey actors and properties around the country and thought that the same system could be used for the post. The Post Office was sceptical about this but the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, gave it a trial and was impressed with the results.

The journey time was much reduced and robberies became rare. They could also carry four passengers. Mail coaches were made to a standard design from 1787 and around 1803 the box and body were integrated which allowed outside passengers to be carried.

Their formal dark red and black decor gave them prestige and wealthy passengers preferred to use them rather than the garishly painted stagecoaches. They were, anyway, faster and more reliable.

By the end of 1785 mail coach services had been established to many places including Holyhead. The exact route taken from London to Holyhead varied at first, until the construction of the A5 road between 1815 and 1826. Holyhead had become even more important after Ireland was incorporated into the United Kingdom by the Act of Union of 1800.

Thomas Telford directed the construction of the new road, needed to improve the link to Dublin. At 01.30 on January 31, 1826, a wild and stormy night, the Menai Bridge was opened to traffic. Telford's revolutionary bridge design, along with his road, meant that the stage coach journey time from London was reduced from 41 hours to 27 hours.

The mail coach service continued until the building of the railway through Anglesey in 1848. Then the mail was taken in a railway carriage to Bangor, loaded onto a cart to be taken across Menai Bridge where it was then placed on another train to be taken to Holyhead. The opening of the Britannia Bridge (designed by Robert Stephenson) a rail bridge which spanned the straits, allowed the whole journey to be undertaken by train.