It is almost impossible to remember a time when we could not communicate immediately by picking up a phone or sending an email, but the model telegraph system in the Elstree and Boreham Wood Museum commemorates the days when things took a little longer.

Exactly 200 years ago, the British Admiralty began to operate a chain of telegraph systems to allow communication between Whitehall in London and the Norfolk coast so they could keep track of Napoleon's fleets.

One of the telegraph stations was located on Borehamwood's Woodcock Hill and passed messages from a station on Hampstead Heath to a base in St Albans which in turn passed the message down the chain of stations until it reached Great Yarmouth.

The model displayed in the museum, in Drayton Road, is a reproduction of the telegraph station and accurately portrays the method by which messages were passed on to the next base.

Six large wooden shutters were mounted on the roof of the heavy timber frame of the building and the shutters were independently operated by the naval ratings.

They acted on orders from officers who were using telescopes to see the signals from the preceding station in the chain.

The model shows the two positions that each shutter could hold, either open or closed. In combination the shutters could be arranged into 64 different configurations.

This allowed letters or phrases to be relayed when the shutters were pulled into different positions by long ropes.

Messages could be passed from Whitehall to Great Yarmouth via 17 telegraph stations in about 11 minutes, and the model of the system can communicate words in semaphore when they are typed into a connecting computer.

The fully working model was made by museum volunteer David Taylor last year, with fellow volunteer Alan Lawrence producing a more basic replica.

Mr Lawrence said: "I decided that as a local history society it's our job to impart as much knowledge to everyone in the area as we can. There is lots of history in Borehamwood but most of it comes from after the arrival of the railway. This system was from when Napoleon was around."

Mr Taylor added: "I made the model to mark the 200th anniversary of the system and also as a learning tool for the general public and schools. There's a lot of information that can be attached to the development of communication since those days.

"Getting a message from Portsmouth to London took a whole day with someone on horseback. That was pretty critical when they were expecting the French to invade at any moment.

"When there was no electricity the telegraph system was the first example of someone creating rapid communication in minutes rather than hours."

The telegraph station was not operative for long, and after Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815 the Admiralty was not facing sufficient threat to need to communicate swiftly.

As a result, all the stations were closed down and most were dismantled. Today, nothing remains of the Woodcock Hill station, and the model is the only remaining record.

Howard Guard, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, recently visited the museum and showed his appreciation for the model in a letter: "I was greatly taken with David Taylor's model and to see my name flashing in semaphore - I think all your exhibits and records are meticulously presented."

Volunteers at Elstree and Boreham Wood Museum are asking residents for their memories and pictures of the Borehamwood village hall for an upcoming exhibition. Anyone with information should call the museum on 020 8953 1258.