Dorset: post boxes

My Christmas holiday host is well trained – she knows my predilection for old-looking post boxes and is happy to (safely) slam on the brakes when she spots one, or I yell “post box” in her ear. These are a few we spotted as we gadded about the highways and country lanes of Dorset (and the lucky last is from a hop over the border to Somerset).

First up (below left) is this slightly-the-worse-for-wear Edward VII box (DT2 73) that was attached to a post by the side of the road near the little hamlet of Up Sydling, a rather out-of-the-way place to be but we were chasing up my friend’s ancestors’ habitations.

In a much better state of repair and looking very photogenic in its old stone wall, was this lovely old Victoria wall box (DT2 52) (above right, and below) in the historic town of Cerne Abbas.

In the wall of a house in Sherborne, we found this rather unusual Victoria wall box (DT9 6). Named after its makers, James Ludlow & Son of Birmingham, it’s called a Ludlow wall box, and, unlike most old post boxes, which were traditionally made of cast iron, the Ludlows’ were made of wood, though they did usually have an enamel name plate on the front and a thin sheet of steel covering the door.

Moving forward in time, we found this George V wall box (DT9 37) (below left) conveniently positioned underneath the town’s notice board in a small village with the intriguing name of Ryme Intrinseca. And, below right, here’s another from Cerne Abbas, a George VI pillar box (DT2 98), also conveniently situated, in the town's main street.

This last (DT9 67) is the intruder from Milborne Port in Somerset and a relatively modern wall box from the reign of Elizabeth II. It looked freshly painted, in that wonderfully vibrant Post Office red that everyone recognises.

Cornwall: Matters philatelic

I say ‘matters philatelic’ though, in truth, this post is not about stamps but rather about the objects into which we place our stamped articles in order to have them collected and whisked away to their destinations, i.e. the various types of post and pillar boxes I spotted in Cornwall – and one phone box, for good measure, for no good reason other than the fact that I liked it. So, jumping right in ...

This first box dates from the reign of George V, so would have been installed some time between 1910 and 1936. Though George V’s post and pillar boxes only used the initials GR, they can be distinguished from the later George VI’s by the mere fact that they don’t show a regnal number. This box is slotted into the front wall of the Post Office at St Mawes but it appears to be front opening so mail collection would presumably be by a P.O. van driver rather than by local Post Office staff.

Sadly, this wall box in Porthscatho is now out of service, and the interior of the building to which it is attached is empty. A little googling resulted in the information that the quay-side Post Office at Porthscatho was closed and the services re-assigned to a local shop in early 2015, despite a significant protest by the local community. This box also dates from George V’s era but is a different design to the one in St Mawes: the king’s initials are placed lower on the box and are more prominent.

Next up is this typical example of a George V pillar box that I found just uphill from the old harbour at Newquay. As I have written previously, pillar box design was initially quite random but was standardised from 1859, though there have been many modifications to the basic design over the years. And, of course, as the kings and queens have changed, so have the royal initials on the front of the boxes. 

These boxes are made of cast-iron so, as long as they’re given a regular coat of paint, they will last a long time, as this box bears witness.

This lamp box (those designed to be fitted to lamp posts or on their own free-standing pedestal) takes the prize as the newest box I’ve ever seen. It looked like it had never been used. 

To be honest, the box looked very incongruous as it was located in Mevagissey, one of Cornwall’s gorgeous historic fishing villages, where I would have expected to see much older boxes being preserved and used.

However, I may have found a clue to why this new box is there: I found photos online (from the St Austell Voice, issue 545, dated 28 September 2016) showing contractors illegally removing a post box from the Grade-II listed former Post Office building (illegal as they did not having planning consent to do this) and a story about the catastrophe on another website. 

Perhaps this modern lamp box is the replacement. A sad tale indeed!

My last two boxes were found in the historic village of Tintagel. No, they don’t date from the time of King Arthur, but not only is there a very nice George VI wall box (at right; note the king’s regnal number subtly placed between his scripted initials, which is how you know this is George the sixth not the fifth), there is also a wall box dating from the reign of Queen Victoria (above), not something you see very often these days. 

This looks to be one of the earliest wall box designs as it doesn’t have a pediment to prevent rain entering the mail slot (an early design flaw), though it does have that rather odd-looking rectangular attachment along the top (perhaps a modern-day modification). As you may be able to read, the box can only be used during the summer months.

But wait, there’s more. Not only is this a wonderful VR wall box, this box is set into the wall of Tintagel’s Old Post Office, a building that is now owned and administered by the National Trust. 

As you can probably tell from that wavy roof line, this building is old: it is believed to date from the 14th century, beginning life as a humble farmhouse and gradually being added to over the centuries to become a manor house. One room of the house was used as the village post office from around the 1870s and summertime visitors can still see that room, with its old post office equipment. Obviously, that’s yet another reason for me to return to Tintagel.

And last but not least, a fun addition to this post – a charming old phone box I saw in St Ives. I couldn’t see if it was still functioning but I liked the addition off the hanging plant, clock and flag.

Quite recently I read in a newspaper article (The Telegraph, 3 January 2016) that ‘even in a country (England) famous for its eccentric past-times, photographing and cataloguing post boxes is the most niche and inexplicable of all hobbies’. Obviously, I cannot possibly agree but what do you think?

Edward VIII pillar box

Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor was King for less than a year, from 20 January 1936 till his abdication on 11 December that same year. It should come as no surprise then that items that carry the Edward VIII name, insignia, portrait (like coinage) or emblem are few and far between. So, I was rather pleased to get a photo of this pillar box carrying the royal cipher of Edward VIII, one of only two known to exist in Wales.

According to a list I found online, there are around 170 known Edward VIII pillar boxes, most of which are in England. Apparently, more still exist that were manufactured and put in place during Edward VIII’s short reign but their doors were changed to display the cipher of George VI after Edward’s abdication. Images of some of the other extant Edward VIII pillar boxes can be found on Wikimedia here,  

I am not alone in having a fascination for such things: the Humbugshouse blog has a great post with lots of photo of many of the English boxes, and there is even a Letter Box Study Group, whose aims are ‘to encourage research, preservation, restoration and awareness of letter boxes and the definitive description and documentation of their types and locations.’  

For pillar box aficionados, I have blogged previously about some of the other pillar boxes I’ve found, and my local Edward VIII pillar box can be found in Heol Don, in the Cardiff suburb of Whitchurch. Its importance is obviously well recognised as the fence of the house behind it has been altered to accommodate it.

Pillar boxes, post boxes

Do you still post letters?

According to statistics published by the British Postal Museum, the number of letters posted via Royal Mail increased from 5,579,000,000 in the 1920/21 financial year to 16,649,000,000 in 2009/10 but, when you consider the massive population increase over the same period (44,082,000 at the 1921 Census, increasing to 63,182,000 at the 2011 Census), that’s not exactly good news for Royal Mail.

An Edward VII box in Albany Road, in Cardiff

Their stats also show that numbers have been dropping annually since they peaked at 20,196,000,000 in 2004/5 – as their report states: ‘Volumes … were boosted for twenty years by the impact of the revolution in information technology – until a flight of social and transactional correspondence to the internet triggered the precipitate decline starting in 2006’.   

Though the Uniform Penny Post began in Britain in 1840, it wasn’t until 1853 that the first roadside letter boxes were introduced after Anthony Trollope, then a Surveyor’s Clerk with the Post Office, later a famous novelist, saw them in use in France and Belgium. Though early boxes were painted green to merge with the landscape, it seems that colour also made them difficult to see, so pillar box red was invented and remains the colour of choice for today’s boxes.

Pillar box design was initially quite random but was standardised from 1859, though there have been many modifications to the basic design over the years. And, as the kings and queens have changed, so have the royal initials on the front of the boxes.

Of course, you don’t always have to post your letters in a pillar box as there are also wall and lamp boxes to chose from. No new wall boxes have been made since the 1980s as they, and their walls, were proving too expensive to maintain, but lamp boxes (those designed to be fitted to lamp posts or on their own free-standing pedestal) are just as popular as ever, and can frequently be seen in towns and in the countryside throughout the British Isles.

Like the bright red telephone box, pillar boxes and post boxes are truly iconic symbols of Britain, and I’d hate to see these design classics disappear. So, do me a favour and post a letter today!

All these boxes date from the reign of Queen Victoria

Above is the standard George V pillar box design, and below is a variation, complete with italicised initials on the front

Various designs of Elizabeth II pillar boxes

A lamp box in the middle of nowhere in the English countryside