Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

[pdeaves]

It’s a shame the CR111 ones are not a complete casting. The ones I’ve seen on here look like an engraved alloy plate applied to an already made box.

During the last 5 years or so of the (late) queen's reign I saw several examples like that; an EIIR plate attached to otherwise-plain boxes. I remember wondering if that was deliberate preparation for the inevitable, with very simple action needed to change to the new cypher. It seems so!

 

[Forty29]

Once you slide into the world of post boxes, you can't escape
The old box you mention, @Forty29 - have you looked at that same location on Google Street, e.g. if that box was captured via Google's camera-car, before the hoarding went up around the derelict pub?

I'll take a look, thanks.

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I did look but the hoarding is up! Date on Google street saying May this year. I'll drive there soon see if any changes.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

I haven't got a picture of it but there's a postbox fairly near us in the Tatsfield area which, while it's nothing unusual in itself (it's just a standard freestanding one, GR, I think) that's on an unmade road - either Paynesfield Road or Kemsley Road, I'm not sure which. I can't offhand think of any others that are on completely unmade roads.

 

[Sun Chariot]

During the last 5 years or so of the (late) queen's reign I saw several examples like that; an EIIR plate attached to otherwise-plain boxes.

Yes, I know the sort you mean. To date, I've found only one local example (attached photo); and I agree that the cypher appears to be on a separate aluminium plate, rather than a door integral casting.
The 'post box nerd' in me, noted that this type of box - Type A Phase 3, for want of a better definition - has the simpler style of posting-aperture than the Type A EIIR boxes attached with post 3.

 

[weepingwillowb]

A posting box outside Kirkby Lonsdale Post Office, Cumbria/Westmorland. The post office is up for sale, £460,000, because of the retirement of the present owners.

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[WesternLancer]

I’ve just caught up on some recent posts. Caught the last Christmas post collection for first class this morning at my local box.

One of my bugbears for sending stuff is occasional failures of staff emptying boxes to change over the stainless tags in the slot on the box stating next collection time.

Am I right to recall not so long ago these had times on them not days of the week? Ie when boxes were emptied several times a day especially in urban areas.

Did the tags always exist? (ie decades ago. I recall them from at least the 80s but assume they may date back far longer)

 

[Steddenm]

There were some tags which said things like "MON AM", "THU PM" and "SAT".

 

[Sun Chariot]

Kirkby Lonsdale's wall box is interesting - @weepingwillowb thanks for sharing - Royal Mail paints their decommissioned post boxes black.
This example, however, still has collection times information and its posting aperture is open for people to put letters in.
Perhaps it's painted black in readiness for decommissioning.
Or maybe it's a case of black mail in Kirkby Lonsdale...

 

[WesternLancer]

Kirkby Lonsdale's wall box is interesting - @weepingwillowb thanks for sharing - Royal Mail paints their decommissioned post boxes black.
This example, however, still has collection times information and its posting aperture is open for people to put letters in.
Perhaps it's painted black in readiness for decommissioning.
Or maybe it's a case of black mail in Kirkby Lonsdale...

I think it’s bronze patina perhaps. Not paint maybe

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There were some tags which said things like "MON AM", "THU PM" and "SAT".

Thanks. Rings a bell.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I think it’s bronze patina perhaps. Not paint maybe

Ah of course - that makes far more sense.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Kirkby Lonsdale's wall box is interesting - @weepingwillowb thanks for sharing - Royal Mail paints their decommissioned post boxes black.
This example, however, still has collection times information and its posting aperture is open for people to put letters in.
Perhaps it's painted black in readiness for decommissioning.
Or maybe it's a case of black mail in Kirkby Lonsdale...

The "POSTING BOX" letters look quite 1950s to my eye—original GPO? Plenty of rust marks on the door (screwheads?) and round the keyhole.

 

[WesternLancer]

The "POSTING BOX" letters look quite 1950s to my eye—original GPO? Plenty of rust marks on the door (screwheads?) and round the keyhole.

Ah yes. Looks like steel screws / fixings.

 

[DelW]

Since I see that "toppers" have made it onto this thread, I thought I'd add the seasonal one that's round the corner from me.



I don't know who makes them, but they're changed regularly.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Nice one @DelW - thanks for sharing. That's the first topper I've seen on a lamp box (I've only seen pillar boxes adorned) and it's a very intricately crafted one, too.

Post 91's two boxes-with-toppers: one of those now has a parcels posting box and a solar panel (post 101 shows an example); and its companion box has a different topper

 

[High Dyke]

Three Double boxes found in London, a few years ago.

1. VR. Essex Court, Temple.
2. EIIR (with the rounded Post Office indicator on top). Holborn Viaduct.
3. E7, with a VR door replacement. Gray's Inn Road.

(1) (2) (3)

Clicking on the photo's does show them in the correct orientation.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Fabulous Type C triple, @High Dyke , thanks for sharing those.
I worked in London for 18 years - and I lived there for 12 of those years. All long before post boxes piqued my interest.

 

[weepingwillowb]

A Victorian pillar box in Westgate, Warwick, photographed in 2018.

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[Sun Chariot]

Fabulous fluted box @weepingwillowb
Its design echoes the examples at Mudeford (mentioned in post 70). I'd heard about Warwick's examples but I had not found a decent photo. Many thanks for sharing.

 

[ETMbloke]

There were some tags which said things like "MON AM", "THU PM" and "SAT".

In my younger years, I think that there were tags with numbers. Each number corresponded to a collection time, which was on the panel on the box. So for example: -

1 - 9am
2 - 12 midday
3 - 3pm and
4 - 6 pm (last collection)

So if you were posting at 10am and saw the 2 tag, you missed the first collection, but in time for the second collection.

The tag had numbers on both sides so on the first collection, the postman just flipped the tag over. After the second collection, the postman would retrieve and exchange a second tag from inside the door of the box and this tag would show numbers 3 and 4 and display this on the outside for the rest of the day.

 

[DelW]

Did the tags always exist? (ie decades ago. I recall them from at least the 80s but assume they may date back far longer)

I think I remember enamel ones with black on white lettering (or numbers) before the era of stainless steel. Probably as far back as the 1950s or '60s.

 

[WesternLancer]

In my younger years, I think that there were tags with numbers. Each number corresponded to a collection time, which was on the panel on the box. So for example: -

1 - 9am
2 - 12 midday
3 - 3pm and
4 - 6 pm (last collection)

So if you were posting at 10am and saw the 2 tag, you missed the first collection, but in time for the second collection.

The tag had numbers on both sides so on the first collection, the postman just flipped the tag over. After the second collection, the postman would retrieve and exchange a second tag from inside the door of the box and this tag would show numbers 3 and 4 and display this on the outside for the rest of the day.

Interesting. Approx when would that have been as I have the idea I’d seen something that related to time of collection some time ago but I suspect maybe the 80s or 90s

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I think I remember enamel ones with black on white lettering (or numbers) before the era of stainless steel. Probably as far back as the 1950s or '60s.

Interesting to note. Thanks

 

[ETMbloke]

Interesting. Approx when would that have been as I have the idea I’d seen something that related to time of collection some time ago but I suspect maybe the 80s or 90s

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Interesting to note. Thanks

Early 80s

 

[Ashley Hill]

I think I remember enamel ones with black on white lettering (or numbers) before the era of stainless steel. Probably as far back as the 1950s or '60s.

Yes enamel ones existed, I used to change them when out with my father. On the back of the doors was a holder which could hold two or three tags. They were double sided, some a simple reversible AM/PM whilst others had days or specific times depending on location.

 

[pdeaves]

The post box nearest to where I live until recently seemed to have a MON tag in it, upside down (so reading NOW). In the last couple of months it's gone back to having a variety of days displayed. Not necessarily correct, but they do change again!

 

[weepingwillowb]

Letter box in the hamlet of Mewith, near High Bentham, North Yorkshire. The postbox number is LA2 58.

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[Sun Chariot]

That's a fabulous find @weepingwillowb A wall-embedded lamp box, of a style very similar to the EVII wall-mounted lanp box I attached in post 7.
However, I did not realise lamp boxes dated back to Victoria's reign. Superb stuff.

 

[WesternLancer]

This wall mounted example is in Shilbottle near Alnmouth. A communication hub with bus stop adjacent tho no sign of a pay phone there.

It was in tidy condition and may have been recently repainted.

Apols for the after dark picture taken this evening when going to post a few letters ready for the morning collection.

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I like these modern styled boxes but am not sure when the design dates from. Does anyone know?

Interestingly I noticed they have no provision for the usual stainless tag indicator to tell you if the collection has happened that day or not. Are there other designs also without such provision?

 

[Sun Chariot]

That "ergonomic waste bin" (!) EIIR lamp box is a design I've not seen nor known of; thanks for sharing @WesternLancer

Fairly local to me, is an EIIR lamp box of a style reminiscent of a dove-cot. It appeared about 4 years ago. I have not seen any others designed like it. I will take a photo when the light conditions are good.

 

[DelW]

That's a fabulous find @weepingwillowb A wall-embedded lamp box, of a style very similar to the EVII wall-mounted lanp box I attached in post 7.
However, I did not realise lamp boxes dated back to Victoria's reign. Superb stuff.

Another Victorian one built into a wall, this one with a railway connection - it's in the back wall of Milford station in Surrey.

I did wonder if it might have dated from when the station opened (per Wikipedia) exactly 167 years ago today, on New Year's Day 1859. But the brickwork around it looks as though it may have been modified later, and the less florid "VR" (than the one in #145) suggests it might be later in Victoria's reign.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Thanks for sharing, @DelW
I like incongruously-placed wall boxes. Milford Station's box makes me wonder if a sub post office once existed inside.

To date, I've only found two distinct styles of Victoria-era wall box - on post 1.(one which matches Milford's) and post 63.

The wonderful VR cypher example, on post 145, is actually a lamp box; subsequently embedded into a wall and used as a wall box.