In 1845 Beith Post Office received two deliveries of mail per day, with one daily departure. Letters were delivered twice a day and it cost one penny to send mail to the neighbouring towns of Dalry, Kilbirnie and Lochwinnoch.
A notice in the Western Supplement and Advertiser, dated 27 January 1883, reveals that the amount of outgoing mail from Beith had significantly increased and that mail was now being despatched from Beith four times a day and once on Sunday. There were now three deliveries of letters per day with the Post Office being open on Sunday morning between 9am and 10am to callers.
The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, dated 1884, reveals that at Beith’s Post Office one could purchase a money order, save with the post office savings bank (introduced in 1861), purchase insurance and send telegraphs. The Telegraph Act 1869 gave the General Post Office a monopoly over telegraphic communication in the United Kingdom.
By 1897 the Post Office had been based at Main Street, Beith for over 30 years, but with the advent of the telephone service, along with an increase in both postal and telegraph services and staff numbers, the Post Office found it necessary to find larger premises. In June 1897 the Post Office moved to 25-31 Eglinton Street, Beith, which was specifically built for the Post Office. The two-storey tenement building had offices and flats on the second floor. Above the building sits a central corniced wallhead stack with an arch dated 1897 which frames the Royal Coat of Arms. This building was C Listed in April 1971 and is now used as a sorting office for the Royal Mail.
In August 1897 a branch Post Office was opened in Barrmill with Mrs Pyper in charge. In October 1897 Beith Post Office began using bicycles to deliver telegraphs. According to the Western Supplement and Advertiser, this was the first official introduction of the bicycle by the Post Office in Ayrshire. By 1899 the bicycle was being used to deliver letters too.
In 1904 post office pillar collections were taken from the wall boxes on Eglinton Street, Head Street and King’s Road and the pillar box on Main Street.
On Monday 18 August 1958 a short ceremony was held in Beith post office to mark the issue of the new Scottish 3d postage stamp. A presentation card with the very first 3d Scottish stamp sold at Beith was presented to Councillor Matthew G. Boyd by postmaster Mr. Harrison. This was the first time that Scotland had its own postage stamp.
The 1958 Scottish 3d postal stamp, in violet, had two versions of the Scottish national badges on it. In the left-hand bottom corner was the Queen’s Saltire Badge (the St Andrew’s Cross encircled by a crown) and on the right-hand side was the Crowned Thistle, the Queen’s Royal Badge for Scotland.
In 1969 the General Post Office (GPO) became the Post Office and the Post Office Savings bank was transferred to the treasury becoming known as “National Savings”. In 1981 the telecommunications department of the Post Office ceased to exist, and the British Telecommunications Corporation was formed. In the late 1980’s the Post Office was situated in the ironmongers store owned by William Brown. In 2002 the Post Office moved from the Cross to the Beith Townhouse, after which it was in a chemist on Eglinton Street. It is now situated in the Day Today supermarket on Eglinton Street.