Communications in the Isle of Man were taken over by the GPO. The internal telegraph system was extended within a year to Castletown and Peel, however by then the previous lack of modern communications in Castletown had already started the Isle of Man Government on its move to Douglas. Due to increasing usage in the years following nationalisation, further cables between Port Cornaa and St Bees were laid in 1875 and 1885. By 1883 Smith's Directory listed several telegraph offices operated by the Post Office, in addition to those at Douglas, Ramsey, Castletown and Peel the telegraph was also available at Laxey, Ballaugh, and Port St.
Hunt the Wren monster rat, for the wren.' By the 1890s the practice of capturing a wren was seen as rare and instead just the wren pole was being taken around the houses with singing. By the 1900s the practice remained common, with numbers of separate groups going around to Hunt the Wren in Onchan, Castletown, Douglas, Peel, Port St. Mary and Kirk Michael, and one group going to Hunt the Wren in Ramsey. Despite reports of it as 'dying out' in the 1930s, the practice of singing around the houses with the wren pole was still taking place in 1975, though it