Catalogue description Post Office: Registered Files, Minuted and Decentralised Registry Papers (Miscellaneous Papers)

The current series arrangement reflects that adopted by the Post Office registry. Separate series reflect the four different minute series which were in use until 1921: Packet Services, England & Wales, Ireland, and Scotland (POST 29 - POST 32). The amalgamation of the minute series into one general series in 1921 is likewise followed in the current arrangement of the papers (POST 33). A separate series contains the papers filed under the Decimal Filing system in wartime (POST 102). Following the decentralisation of the registry in 1955, the previous minuted papers series was closed and a new series set up for the listing of both the centralised registry's files and the decentralised registries' files from 1955 (POST 122). In addition, there are two series which reflect later creations of series to accomodate papers which had, for various reasons, not been assimilated into the main series (TCB 2 and POST 121)

Post 121 comprises three sets of files which were found only after the appropriate series (POST 30-POST 33 and POST 102) had already been catalogued. Pieces 1-338 are a collection of files which had been forgotten after the completion of the cases which caused their creation. They can be classified as belonging to the England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland and General series of papers (POST 30-POST 33). Pieces 339A-429 comprises papers which had remained in use in Headquarters departments, or had been forgotten, until the evacuation of the Headquarters Building in 1984. They can be classified as belonging to the England & Wales, General and Decimal Filing series of papers (POST 30, POST 33 and POST 102). Pieces 430-452 are a collection of files which originated from a variety of filing series and registry systems, both centralised and decentralised.

The system of "minuting" papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (ie numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a "minute" into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel "Report" series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40)

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the "minuting" of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.