Description:The Ministry of Labour pictured in 1966 at 132 Newport Road, Stafford.
Around the time of this photograph the Ministry of Labour (the precursor to today's (2026) Department for Work and Pensions) was based in Stafford on Newport Road. This branch operated as the local Employment Exchange, assisting people with finding work, processing National Insurance, managing unemployment claims and involved in retraining schemes.
In later years The Ministry of Labour was transformed into the Department of Employment, and subsequently Jobcentre Plus. In Stafford the Jobcentre operated from offices on Mill Bank, Greyfriars House, the Wedgwood Building and currently it is located at 30 Greengate Street, Stafford, in the Civic Centre building.
On the extreme left there is a part view of an access road that led to what was known as the Post Office Sorting Office on Newport Road which was Stafford's central mail hub. Prior to full mechanisation and postcodes, the facility relied entirely on manual labour, where postmen/women and sorters hand-stamped letters, used pigeonholes, and physically sorted mail by county and town. The Ministry of Labour building has since been demolished, and the area is used as a car park by the Royal Mail Delivery Office which still uses the access road in the picture.