The look of the network has changed radically over the decades.
In the beginning, when private companies were providing telegraph and telephone services, there was no recognisable 'house style'.
That changed when the GPO took over from the 1890s. The Post Office years saw the development of staff uniforms and vehicle liveries that defined the look and feel of the network in Britain.
Since privatisation, that house style has changed again ...
The GPO's Motor Transport division was started in 1906 and went on to become the largest vehicle fleet in the country. Up until then labourers and engineers relied on horses, carts and leg-power.
The GPO bought and modified 600 ex-army vehicles, after the First World War, from motorcycle combinations to 3-ton lorries, which were used to carry equipment from job to job. But as transport became increasingly essential, the fleet expanded, and vehicles became much more tailored to the job.
The fleet grew on a policy of buying British, and helped to support the UK's motor industry for decades - particularly Morris Commercial, and later British Leyland..
By the time British Telecom was privatised in 1984, it owned over 70,000 cars and vans.
In the early days, vehicles for the Post Office Telephones motor pool vehicles were acquired from a variety of sources, all painted a uniform dark green.
By the 1970s green was considered old-fashioned so the vehicles were painted a livelier, bright yellow, which also made them more noticeable at the roadside and hence less of a hazard.
A new corporate image introduced in 1991 changed the livery to a sleeker grey. This helped to 'hide' the fleet, making it less conspicuous, but there was a unwelcome side-effect in increased accidents. The move to white vans, which commenced in 2001, struck a balance and eliminated the higher costs of the bespoke grey livery.
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The telecommunications network spread rapidly through the first half of the 20th century and this in part was thanks to the heroic efforts of the men who installed the poles and cables.
The Albion van is a perfect example of the transport used by the men who installed and maintained telegraph and telephone lines. It was a home from home for a four-man team, and housed all the equipment needed for them to complete the job.
This van was registered in 1936 and was used in Gloucestershire, where it would have been used on the lines in both the county town and in the beautiful Cotswold hills.
After 14 years service the van was sold to a farmer who left it in a paddock pretty much untouched for the next 20 years until it was bought back by the Post Office to be restored and preserved.
This Morris JB van was the standard vehicle for telephone fitters and installers, with plenty of space in the rear to carry their equipment like this van from Tunbridge Wells.
The Post Office owned the largest fleet of business vehicles in the country, and much of it was made up of the telephone company's transport. All of the fleet were painted in this 'mid-Brunswick' green colour, which kept the painting needs consistent but gave them a rather military look.
Morris was one of the UK's largest car manufacturers until it finally closed in 1980 and for many years it was The Post Office's main vehicle supplier.
