{"id":4283,"date":"2019-09-11T11:31:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T10:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?p=4283"},"modified":"2019-09-11T11:31:49","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T10:31:49","slug":"strange-things-posted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/","title":{"rendered":"The strangest things to have been sent through the post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"An Irish Terrier like the one posted through the mail\" data-id=\"4284\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?attachment_id=4284\" class=\"wp-image-4284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The most common things to be sent through the Royal Mail postal system\nare letters and simple parcels, which are often packaged in boxes or durable\nbags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this isn&#8217;t all that postal workers handle, and we&#8217;ve gathered\nsome fascinating examples below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While many packages are handled and the contents mostly remain unknown,\nthe below examples were sent without packaging \u2014 exposing the truth and testing\nthe British postal system to its limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Humans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wrbray.org.uk\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">W. Reginald Bray<\/a>, an accountant and\neccentric in Victorian London, successfully posted himself multiple times \u2014\nfirst in 1900, then again in 1903 and later, in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On 23 February 1909, two suffragettes also posted themselves to 10\nDowning Street, London, to speak to the then Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith,\nregarding women&#8217;s right to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miss Solomon and Miss McLellan were delivered the very same day by courier; however, officials then refused to sign for them. Because of this, they weren&#8217;t able to see the Prime Minister, either. Eventually, they had to leave again with the courier \u2014 essentially being returned to sender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Animals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While this is no longer the case, at one point in time, live animals\nwere able to be sent through the mail in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside himself, W. Reginald Bray once sent his Irish terrier, Bob,\nthrough the post (separately).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bray also posted a rabbit skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Underwear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Inspired by Bray and his postal adventures,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-london-42272052\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">David Bramwell and\nDavid Robinson<\/a>&nbsp;spent a year sending bizarre and unpackaged inanimate objects to\neach other through the Royal Mail service. This was purely to see if the items\nwould arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These items included a pair of men&#8217;s underwear, a leaf, and a slice of\ntoast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only item to have been sent by the men which didn&#8217;t arrive at its destination was a toilet roll. The roll must have unravelled en route and therefore lost its address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Puzzles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An illustrator named\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/art\/3561715\/Harriet-Russell-Pushing-the-envelope.html\" target=\"_blank\">Harriet Russell published a book called Envelopes<\/a>\u00a0in 2008 which features a selection of the 100+ envelopes she previously posted through the mail, all featuring puzzles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The puzzles include anagrams of the destination address, word searches, crosswords, drawings, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of these envelopes were successfully deciphered by Royal Mail\nworkers and the mail delivered to the correct address. Some of the envelopes\neven received interaction from Royal Mail staff by way of written comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Potatoes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite bizarrely, there are several businesses online who will anonymously send a potato for you to a recipient of your choice. Based on this, I&#8217;m imagining quite a few potatoes get sent through the mail regularly. Although, most will be parcelled up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, you can apply postage and an address to a potato yourself and\npost it anonymously to whoever you&#8217;d like. Doing that would no doubt cost less\nand would undoubtedly be met with more surprise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What can&#8217;t you send?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find a detailed list of what you cannot send via Royal Mail in the UK,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.postoffice.co.uk\/mail\/uk-what-can-i-send\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. The list includes items such as aerosols, nail varnish, magnets, and weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Love snail mail? Check out our blog for articles such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/pen-pals\/tips-for-being-a-pen-pal\/\">Tips for Being a Great Pen Pal<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/pen-pals\/pen-pal-questions\/\">75 Questions to Ask Your Pen Pal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most common things to be sent through the Royal Mail postal system are letters and simple parcels, which are often packaged in boxes or durable bags. However, this isn&#8217;t all that postal workers handle, and we&#8217;ve gathered some fascinating examples below. While many packages are handled and the contents mostly remain unknown, the below&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.7.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The strangest things to have been sent through the post - The Pen Company Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Letters &amp; parcels aren\u2019t the only things to travel through the post. Dogs, flip flops, and even humans have been successfully posted in the past!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The strangest things to have been sent through the post - The Pen Company Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Letters &amp; parcels aren\u2019t the only things to travel through the post. Dogs, flip flops, and even humans have been successfully posted in the past!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Pen Company Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePenCompany\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-11T10:31:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-11T10:31:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lucy Williams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thepencompany\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thepencompany\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lucy Williams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/\",\"name\":\"The strangest things to have been sent through the post - The Pen Company Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-11T10:31:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-11T10:31:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376\"},\"description\":\"Letters & parcels aren\u2019t the only things to travel through the post. Dogs, flip flops, and even humans have been successfully posted in the past!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"The strangest things to have been sent through the post\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Pen Company Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376\",\"name\":\"Lucy Williams\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lucy Williams\"},\"description\":\"Lucy is our lead editor and has been passionate about stationery since childhood. She has a particular fondness for rollerball and calligraphy pens and is a keen advocate of snail mail.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/author\/lucy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The strangest things to have been sent through the post - The Pen Company Blog","description":"Letters & parcels aren\u2019t the only things to travel through the post. Dogs, flip flops, and even humans have been successfully posted in the past!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The strangest things to have been sent through the post - The Pen Company Blog","og_description":"Letters & parcels aren\u2019t the only things to travel through the post. Dogs, flip flops, and even humans have been successfully posted in the past!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/","og_site_name":"The Pen Company Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePenCompany","article_published_time":"2019-09-11T10:31:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-11T10:31:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Portrait-Of-A-Red-Dog-Close-up-271459837-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lucy Williams","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@thepencompany","twitter_site":"@thepencompany","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lucy Williams","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/","name":"The strangest things to have been sent through the post - The Pen Company Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-09-11T10:31:48+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-11T10:31:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376"},"description":"Letters & parcels aren\u2019t the only things to travel through the post. Dogs, flip flops, and even humans have been successfully posted in the past!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/royal-mail\/strange-things-posted\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"The strangest things to have been sent through the post"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/","name":"The Pen Company Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b621584a04332c39a493182f2dca6376","name":"Lucy Williams","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f251747ed7a120404b73c37c381c4c96?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lucy Williams"},"description":"Lucy is our lead editor and has been passionate about stationery since childhood. She has a particular fondness for rollerball and calligraphy pens and is a keen advocate of snail mail.","url":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/author\/lucy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4283"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4301,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions\/4301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}