The Post Office in Pictures, from the 1930s to 1980s A mail cart being driven across a shoreline, bound for Holy Island in Northumberland. Known to the locals as noddies, these horse-drawn traps carried mail across the water from the mainland of Beal to Holy Island. Guided only by the poles that mark a sandy causeway, the unusually high wheels allowed the vehicle to drive in to the waves. This image appeared in the Post Office Magazine in August 1938. All of the photos in this gallery are taken from the exhibition The Post Office in Pictures, on show at The Lumen in London until August 31 2012. The free exhibition showcases a selection of inspiring images dating from the 1930s to the 1980s, all sourced from the vast collections of The British Postal Museum and Archive. The series of photos can trace its origins to 1934, when the General Post Office established its Public Relations Department and from which point the everyday working relaties of the country's postal workers were documented through photography. Picture: Royal Mail Group plc