The Long Cicuit and Ormskirk's appalling postal service
A letter from Ormskirk to Preston (a distance of 18 miles) if sent by the postal system in the late 1790s, was carried via what was rightly called the Long Circuit. Post would be carried by the Mail Coach from Ormskirk to Liverpool, then to Warrington, then Wigan, then Chorley and then arrive in Preston hopefully within 48 hours.
The establishment of the General Post Office
The General Post Office (GPO), established by King Charles 11 in 1660 after the Restoration, relied on Mail Coaches which were initially operated by private contractors who supplied the coach, horses and drivers. The GPO employed a guard to sound the Post Horn to alert Tollgates to be opened before arrival to avoid delay. Tolls were not paid by Mail Coaches.
The people of Ormskirk, especially the growing number of solicitors, clergy and those in commerce, were not happy that they had to wait around 4 days for a reply to a letter sent via the Long Circuit system. Despite a petition signed by a number of Ormskirk people sent to the General Post Office, little was done to improve the efficiency of Mail delivery in rural West Lancashire. The Towns people again petitioned the GPO via the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyne and local landowner, Edward Wilbraham-Bootle of Lathom House in 1797 but nothing was actioned to improve the service.
Ormskirk's Mail Coaches
Annoyingly by 1797 there was a scheduled Mail Coach from Preston to Liverpool which went through Ormskirk and conveyed mail but there were no Mail Coaches on the return route. The Mail Coach operator on that route was Thomas Cooper of Preston but in 1800 a rival coach company started operating the Preston/Liverpool route and were offering to take mail. As a result of the competition the GPO mail collections in Ormskirk were changed from 5pm to 3pm, in the hope that the competition would fail.
By 1806 Ormskirk could receive mail via guarded Mail Coach leaving the Saracen’s Head Inn, (Demolished 1868) Snow-Hill, (Holborn) London at 5pm each day. The coach called at Kendal, Lancaster, Kirby Lonsdale, Garstang, Bolton, Preston Chorley and Ormskirk which opened up more trading and business opportunities for West Lancashire.
Copyright Dot Broady Hawkes, published in the Ormskirk Advertiser 21st August 2025