Memories of the mail cart

One of the most dramatic photographs that survives from past times shows the horse drawn mail cart heading for Bourne on its last run on 9th May 1915 before finally being taken over by motorised transport.

Every day for more than half a century, the post was carried between Bourne and Peterborough in this way and the final journey for the mail cart was considered to be sufficiently important for it to be photographed driving past the crossroads at Thurlby, three miles south of the town.

The driver on that occasion was James Brown Toulson, aged 46, who had done the return journey every night for thirteen years at a wage of 18 shillings for a seven-day week. He always wore his official gold-braided uniform and helmet with brass Royal Mail badge. Two horses were used to pull the mail van on the 16-mile journey, leaving Bourne at 7.40 pm in the evening carrying sacks full of outgoing letters and parcels and picking up more from villages along the way, beginning the return journey from Peterborough at 2.30 am with a similar incoming load, arriving in Bourne at 4.30 am where the mail was sorted and delivered from the main Post Office, then situated in the town centre, premises now occupied by Lloyds TSB.

Mr Toulson, of Victoria Place, Bourne, carried his first mail on 9th May 1902, and usually drove through the night on a deserted highway without seeing a soul for the entire journey. There were no street lights, the surfaces were uneven and full of potholes and so the going could be dangerous. After retiring, he remained active and was still cycling in old age. He died at St George’s Hospital, Stamford, on 27th November 1950, aged 85, and is buried in the town cemetery with his first wife, Charlotte Susannah, who had predeceased him by 23 years and died on 19th June 1931. The stone memorial also remembers their son William Morris Toulson, a victim of the Great War who died of his wounds at La Cateau, France, on 5th October 1918, aged 22. He had married again in 1935 to a widow, Mrs Mabel Milan, who survived him and died in March 1960, aged 81.

Other drivers would agree with James Toulson that the job was not without its hazards. On the evening of Tuesday 24th December 1861, Christmas Eve, there was great anxiety in the town because the mail cart running between Bourne and Sleaford which was due at 8 p m did not arrive. It later transpired that the cart had overturned at Graby Bar, a tollgate six miles north of the town on what is now the A15, and smashed to pieces, badly injuring the driver who was thrown out on to the roadside. A fresh horse and cart were produced at Aslackby and a gentleman from that place, accompanied by a police officer, brought the mail to Bourne, arriving two hours later than scheduled. The driver appeared to have been celebrating the festive season when called out to help because the Stamford Mercury reported the following Friday that "the person in charge of the cart was in anything but a proper state to be entrusted with the conveyance of the mail bags". The regular driver's injuries were so serious that he was taken into the tollhouse at Graby Bar and was there for several days recovering.

Seven years later, Martin Maile was badly hurt while driving the mail cart on this run. On Sunday night, 16th August 1868, he was thrown out between Thurlby and Baston and sustained serious head injuries. He was picked up and brought back to Bourne in a wagon, the mail cart being driven into Peterborough to complete its journey by a policeman who happened to be near the scene at the time. The cause of the accident was never established but it was thought that the horses had been startled by something and the driver could not handle the animals sufficiently well to prevent the mishap.

There was always great public concern if the mail was late. On Friday 7th January 1870, the Stamford Mercury reported: "The driver of the mail cart between Bourne and Sleaford on Tuesday last inadvertently took the Folkingham bag on to Sleaford. The letters were not delivered here until between 12 and 1 o'clock, being about five hours after the usual time, thereby causing much inconvenience."

At 8 pm on the night of Sunday 14th September 1873, the mail cart was in collision with a carriage outside the police station in North Street, Bourne, in which both shafts were broken off. The carriage driven by Mr George Bettinson was also badly damaged but no one sustained any injuries.

The following year, on Thursday 28th May 1874, the horse pulling the mail cart from Sleaford to Bourne fell down as it approached Aslackby and was so seriously injured that it could not continue. Another horse was produced from a nearby farm at Laughton to complete the journey but despite the setback, the mail was only delayed by an hour. "The driver was not injured but the death of the horse is inevitable", reported the Grantham Journal the following Saturday.

In 1876, while on its way to Peterborough on the evening of Friday 29th January, the cart arrived an hour and a half behind schedule and the Stamford Mercury reported the following week: "It appears that the driver was intoxicated and by some means, the horse turned down Cawthorpe Lane, about a mile north of the town, and upset the cart, the driver being underneath the horse. Had there not been another person riding with the driver at the time, the man's life might have been sacrificed; he was seriously injured and had to be taken to the house of Major Parker's gardener on Friday night and remained there until Monday when he was taken to Sleaford where he resides. We understand that the mail cart on the same night (before the accident) had got it wrong and run off the main road at Aswarby."

Another late occurrence was reported by the newspaper on Friday 10th July 1891: "The mail cart running between Sleaford and Peterborough was fully twenty minutes late two nights last week. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make up for lost time after the fresh relay of horses at Bourne. The delay must seriously affect public business. On Thursday evening, the pair of horses arriving in Bourne presented a pitiable spectacle. They had virtually broken down at Morton where the driver dismounted and laboured to assist them at the shafts. The utmost speed the exhausted creatures could muster appeared to be a sorry attempt at a walk."

There was another accident on the evening of Tuesday 4th June 1895 when the mail cart reached Dyke and was descending a hill on the road into town. A bird struck the overhead telegraph wires and fell directly on the horse's head, causing it to swerve suddenly. The driver tried to keep control but was unable to prevent the horse from falling and sustaining serious injury while he himself was thrown out, suffering shock and extensive bruising. Villagers rallied to the rescue and one of them cycled into Bourne to fetch a fresh horse while another took the mail bags in his trap.

James Toulson, however, appears to have got though his 13 years on the road without any serious mishap. “I had some spills but never a bad accident”, he recalled in later years. “The weather was so bad some nights that it made the journey gruelling. Whenever anything serious happened then you were completely on your own and had to get whatever help you could. I once had to have a horse slaughtered and on another occasion, one of them died at Bourne after picking up a rusty nail in its foot but the mail always got through.”

In later years, he told friends “I could write a book about it” but unfortunately, he never did.

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See also William Morris Toulson