The Bristol Postal District, stretching from the Severn banks beyond Oldbury-on-Severn to a point near Bath, and thence straight across to the Bristol Channel again, consists of ground within the City and County of Bristol, and the Counties of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. The border of Wiltshire is touched near Dyrham and Badminton, and the district is separated from Monmouthshire by the estuary of the River Severn.

Post Offices showing signs of great antiquity are scarcely in existence now, for at the present day the wide district thus described in the preceding paragraph contains within its boundaries only one post office established under the primitive but comfortable and picturesque thatched roof. This is the Horton Post Office. The picture of this post office is from an excellent photograph taken by Miss Begbie, a daughter of the Rector of Horton. The village lies at the foot of the Cotswolds, and near this spot, in quiet retreat, William Tyndale translated the New Testament. The Duke of Beaufort's hounds meet from time to time in the Horton Post Office yard. This rustic place was originally the village ale house, yclept "The Horse Shoe." It is now devoted to the more useful purpose of the sale of stamps and the posting and distribution of letters, under the able and energetic superintendence of Mrs. Slade.

Such Postal Sub-Districts as Horton, far remote from their principal centre, were classified under Parliamentary legislation. Thus the fifth Clause posts of early in the 19th Century took their name from the Act 41, Geo. 3, Ch. 7, Clause 5, under which they were established. Special post marks were in use for such posts. In the case of the Bristol district there was only one 5th Clause post, namely, at Thornbury, which was established in 1825, and under its regulations one penny was charged for the delivery of each letter at Thornbury. The post was a horse post from and to Bristol, and the Contractor delivered and collected bags at Almondsbury and Fylton, which were both "penny posts." The main object of the fifth Clause post was to join up small towns with the larger post towns and so it was that Thornbury became thus linked on to Bristol. On the other hand, Bristol had 63 penny posts, including Almondsbury and Fylton, which were denoted by numbers 1 to 63, Clifton being No. 1.

Of the 52 "Fifth Clause Posts" existing in 1839 Bristol had only the one which joined Bristol and Thornbury.

Owing to there being no settled port of departure or arrival for vessels employed for conveyance of Foreign Mails, the letters were frequently despatched by privately-owned ships. They were then impressed with a post-mark "Ship Letter," with the name of the town included.

The Penny Post letters were such as had been posted in any one of the 63 Bristol Penny Post Sub-District Offices for delivery in the district of posting, or in any of the 62 other Offices. Thus a letter posted in Fylton for delivery in Fylton would be charged one penny upon being handed in at that Post Office, and another penny would be obtained on delivery to the addressee.

A letter posted at the Penny Post Office of Almondsbury for delivery in the Penny Post District of Fylton would be charged a penny upon being handed in at the Almondsbury Office and another penny would be charged to the addressee on delivery. Thornbury being a 5th Clause Post would have letters posted in its special "Open" box, delivered in the Thornbury Postal area for the one penny, that charged on delivery.

A letter posted in the "Open" box at Thornbury (5th Clause Post) for Bristol would likewise travel from Poster to addressee for the 1d. delivery charge in Bristol, as bags would be exchanged between the two places.

A single letter, i.e., a letter without an enclosure, coming from Reading for Thornbury, would be charged a general post rate of 8d. to Bristol, plus 1d. for delivery, which would be the same in the cases of letters from Reading for Fylton or Almondsbury; but if a letter were posted at Thornbury for Reading, there would be no charge from Thornbury to Bristol, so that the addressee would only be called upon to pay the general post rate of 8d., whereas, the postage on a letter from Fylton or Almondsbury would be 8d., plus a penny charged for collection.

The mail services in the rural districts are not free from danger. The pitcher may have been carried to the fountain year after year without mishap, but it not infrequently becomes broken at last. In like manner the contractor for the Portishead, Clevedon, and Yatton mail cart service, after having driven over this route with immunity from accident for forty years, yet came to grief in the last week of his connection with His Majesty's mails, January, 1902. The contractor's time table was arranged thus:—Portishead, leave 9.15 p.m.; Clevedon, arrive 10.5 p.m., leave 10.50 p.m.; Yatton, arrive 11.28 p.m.; attend to apparatus and up mail 12.17 a.m., down mail 12.42 a.m.; Yatton, leave 1.5 a.m.; Clevedon, arrive 1.48 a.m., depart 4.15 a.m.; Portishead, arrive 5.5 a.m.

The contractor, Mr. Dawes, now in the 66th year of his age, having performed a part of his outward journey on the 19th September, 1902, left Clevedon for Yatton quite sober as ever, and in his usual health. Then comes the mystery. He did not reach Yatton in due course, and the railway signalman intimated the failure to Bristol, from which office the postmaster of Clevedon was advised, who at early dawn started out a scout on a bicycle to search for the missing mailman and mail bags. The scout discovered no signs of man or mails between Clevedon and the Yatton apparatus station, and going back over the same ground, he eventually met an individual who had seen an aged man with a whip in his hand wandering on the road. This he knew to be his man, and he discovered Dawes walking aimlessly along the road at about 7 a.m. His explanations were not coherent. The horse had ran away with him, and flung him off the cart into a ditch; he had tumbled off the cart, and walked into a ditch; he had tried to knock people up to assist him in trying to find what had become of the missing mails! In the meantime, a farm labourer going out on to the Kingston Seymour moors to milk the cows discovered the mail cart turned over on to its side, and thus embedded in a rhine on the roadside. The horse also was in the rhine, up to his back, partly in mud and partly in water. The milkman immediately started off to Clevedon to give the alarm, and his employer, who was accompanying him on his journey to the milking ground, took prompt steps, in conjunction with moor men, to drag horse and vehicle out of the mud and mire. Fortunately, the mailbags were uninjured, and the postmaster of Clevedon, who had set out on a search, had them conveyed back to his office. Dazed contractor Dawes, the muddy mail cart, and horse coated with mud from head to hoofs, were got back into the town at about 11 a.m. It would seem that the contractor fell asleep and tumbled from his box into the road, and that his horse wandered on, grazing from side to side of the road, till eventually in the dark of night horse and cart fell into the rhine. On coming to himself, the contractor, after trying in vain to arouse the inhabitants of roadside houses, wandered about all night, or it may be laid down somewhere to await morning light. The animal was injured to such an extent that it had to be destroyed.

During the fierce gale which, with unparalleled severity, raged in the Bristol Channel on the night of Thursday, the 10th September, 1903, a vessel was driven ashore on the Gore Sands. Soon after daybreak a call was made for the Burnham Lifeboat, but, in consequence of the heavy seas, the crew was unable to launch her. The coxswain, therefore, telegraphed for the Watchet Lifeboat to proceed to the rescue. Every endeavour was made by the Postal Telegraph authorities to expeditiously transmit the message, but the elements which had operated against the vessel, had likewise played havoc with the telegraph wires, with the result that the telegram sustained such delay in transmission as to retard the launching of the Lifeboat. Fortunately, no serious consequences followed.

As regards mail communication, the night journey by road from Bristol to Bath and Chippenham could not be made, owing to the roads being blocked by fallen trees.

The gale was far reaching in its effects, and carried away parts of Weston-super-Mare Pier, landed boats on promenade, blew down walls, chimneys, and laid low hundreds of trees, was especially "a howler," and disastrous as regards interference with telegraphic communication. Wires were blown down in all directions, and Bristol suffered greatly. On the 11th, at 11.0 a.m., there was no wire whatever available to South Wales, and telegrams had to be sent by train. There was no wire available to Scotland or to the north beyond Birmingham, or to Cork and Jersey. Several local lines were down, such as Wedmore, Hambrook, Yatton, Portishead, Wickwar, etc. Delay of 50 minutes occurred to Birmingham, which office transmitted all work for the north. The delay to London was 40 minutes. Trunk telephone communication was impossible. Every wire was interrupted, and remained so all day. In the evening there was still no wire which could be used to Scotland, Cork, or Channel Islands. Cardiff was reached at 3.0 p.m., on one wire.