Hints on searching the catalogue

Using the 'free text' search box

You can search for any term you choose (rather like a Google search) and browse through the list of results. You may wish to try several variations of a term.

Using 'finding numbers'

If your research has already pointed towards a particular POST class, for example, 'POST 1: Treasury Correspondence' - you can restrict your free text search to that class. Type your search term into the 'free text' box and in the 'finding number' box type the POST class reference in the 'finding number' box (e.g. 'POST 1').

Broaden your search with wildcards

Use an asterisk (*) to denote a wildcard and get more results, for example:

'retire*',

will return catalogue records containing the words 'retire', 'retirement' and 'retired'.

How to find everything that's relevant

The online catalogue is updated regularly to include newly catalogued material. It does not include any reference to uncatalogued material, so it does not cover the full scope of our collections.

Please also bear in mind that some legacy cataloguing does not always contain the words or phrases we may use today to describe important sets of records. We are working to fix this, but if you have any queries you should:

Read the guide to the Royal Mail Archive
Email us with questions: info@postalheritage.org.uk

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