Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

[WesternLancer]

He had a rural village van route so the surrounding area collections had probably not changed for some years.

I can imagine that being the case actually - perhaps fewer daily collections from boxes to start with (compared with the one in the image of the one at Launceston posted by @WesternLancer ) so no need to reduce them and thus the info panels would remain accurate. Local post offices and sorting offices remaining unchanged in location too perhaps.
Enamel panels could easil;y have been manufactured into the late 1930s or even the 1950s I suppose.

 

[weepingwillowb]

The vandalised Victorian pillar box in Morecambe must have had its mail collected since I took the photos on Tuesday, as the Next Collection Day plate said 'Friday' when I saw it at 2 p.m. today. Other than that the box and the damage look the same.

 

[SargeNpton]

I'd spotted this Morecambe pillar box on Sunday, on Chatsworth Road, close to the junction with Regent Road, but didn't have my camera with me. Went to take these photos this morning, showed them to a postmaster I know; he said it looked like vandalism, and that it should get reported the next time there was a mail collection, which should be today. I'll keep an eye on the box, and report back when it's sorted.

There's a jagged vertical slit in the metal, a close-up of which shows that the wirework inside is unbroken. Was the small circular hole part of the vandalism, or was it always there?

This post box a few hundred yards from my house has recently suffered a bit of vandalism, which also exposes a vertical slit in the metal behind the collection details. Looks then as if it is part of the design rather than an attempt to cut into the box.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Many thanks for sharing that @SargeNpton
The amount of corrosion around the pillar box's collection-card holder, makes me now wonder if the vertical gash is where the rust has eaten through and, when the collection-card was pushed into the slot, it caused the gash when the eaten iron fell through.
Attached is another Type A George V,: I put this one into post 37. It's in pretty good condition - and there's no hole / gash.

 

[Bevan Price]

Might be of interest - two postboxes on Carlisle station
E VII R box on Platform 3
VR box next to exit.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Might be of interest - two postboxes on Carlisle station
E VII R box on Platform 3
VR box next to exit.

Those two are great - unique in having two pillar boxes at one station? - and they both have shelves of used books nearby for raising funds for charities.

 

[WesternLancer]

Might be of interest - two postboxes on Carlisle station
E VII R box on Platform 3
VR box next to exit.

I posted a postcard in the platform one earlier this summer during a very tight change of trains at Carlisle. It was in smart condition!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Aug 2026 ==

Some interesting GPO street furniture at Crich Tramway museum last weekend.
One phone box very recently painted to a high standard.
But the older one clearly waits its turn in the restoration queue. Very interesting example.
I presume the penfold pillar box is an original and relocated to the site.

Long time since I’d last been and I was reminded what a superb place it is.

 

[Sun Chariot]

What a haul @WesternLancer

Superb conditon K6 (does it have a slot for BT phonecards?!); and what a wonderful K1 phone-box.

Yes, that Penfold is an original - its casting has Conchrane & Company, Dudley; which ties in with info I'd posted upthread (link)

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

Similarly, there are post boxes to be found in Malta that still have a British monarch's details. On the boxes in Republic Street in Valletta they've been chiseled off, but in several other places no-one has been bothered about that and they remain as they were before the country became...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[weepingwillowb]

A King George V wall box at Hartsop, a hamlet near Patterdale/Ullswater.

 

[Sun Chariot]

A King George V wall box at Hartsop, a hamlet near Patterdale/Ullswater.

What a stunning location for a box. B! I hope his Late Majesty would've approved!

 

[madannie77]

I should have been in Hartsop this morning for a walking expedition, so could have photographed that box, but a truly dreadful night's sleep put paid to that.

Here's one I took in May 2025, in Glenridding on the track to Greenside. I didn't get a shot of the box in the landscape, but the landscapephotos without box were taken from the same place.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Another stunning location for another box! Great shots @madannie77

 

[madannie77]

Just remembered another one, from September 2023 in the rather obscure hamlet of Whale, to the south of Lowther Castle & Askham in Cumbria. Not sure why I took it from an angle, and I had to crop it to make the image small enough for the forum to cope with!

What I do recall is that this box was rather smaller than those I regularly encounter, as might be seen from the fact that it appears to be the same width as the brick it is sitting on.

 

[Sun Chariot]

A superb Geroge V lamp-box (the type that typically attached to telegraph-poles, lamp posts and mounted to freestanding poles). In many lower-demand areas, lamp-boxes are used - cemented into walls. You'll find examples upthread; my area of Hampshire + West Sussex has many.

 

[weepingwillowb]

I should have been in Hartsop this morning for a walking expedition, so could have photographed that box, but a truly dreadful night's sleep put paid to that.

Here's one I took in May 2025, in Glenridding on the track to Greenside. I didn't get a shot of the box in the landscape, but the landscapephotos without box were taken from the same place.

View attachment 210049View attachment 210048

I didn't do so well last night either - a drunken "gentleman" in the flat below me was talking on the phone until nearly midnight, and I had to be up at 5.20 this morning. Managed to make it to Hayeswater, but think I'll be having sore feet and knees tomorrow.

 

[WesternLancer]

I should have been in Hartsop this morning for a walking expedition, so could have photographed that box, but a truly dreadful night's sleep put paid to that.

Here's one I took in May 2025, in Glenridding on the track to Greenside. I didn't get a shot of the box in the landscape, but the landscapephotos without box were taken from the same place.

View attachment 210049View attachment 210048View attachment 210047

That’s set in superb landscape!

 

[Sun Chariot]

Victoria's secret.

I've driven by the West Sussex border's adjacent settlements of Deanlane End and Finchdean (bisected by the Portsmouth Direct Line), in southmost South Downs National Park; I have eaten twice at a country pub at the latter location - yet I only discovered these two Victorian wall boxes yesterday.

Deanlane End's cottages form a backdrop to the older-style VR wall box - with interesting sign under Number 6.
The Pompey Direct Line is a mere fifty yards away!

 

[weepingwillowb]

Victoria's secret.

I've driven by the West Sussex border's adjacent settlements of Deanlane End and Finchdean (bisected by the Portsmouth Direct Line, in southmost South Downs National Park; I have eaten twice at a country pub at the latter location - yet I only discovered these two Victorian wall boxes yesterday.

Deanlane End's cottages form a backdrop to the older-style VR wall box - with interesting sign under Number 6.
The Pompey Direct Line is a mere fifty yards away!

Looks jolly convincing to me! Perhaps V. R. are the initials of the person living at number 6.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Perhaps V. R. are the initials of the person living at number 6.

Cottage number 6 - "Post Box Cottage" - is its local sub-post office (or, as Deanlane End is one dead-end lane, perhaps it qualifies as a sub-sub-post office!).
On that gate sign, I like the pseudo Imperial Crown; with the coarsely-scribed V and R either side of it.


I had another peruse through the Letterbox Study Group site. What I like - prefer - with our thread, though, is how some of the photos lead us into the social histories / story behind the box. I also really like the photos showing post-boxes in their settlement / surroundings. That, for me, is wonderful insight into the postal service's purpose and value to its community, past and present.

And here we are: 500* thread-posts, in what I thought was a nicbe subject of low-interest!
Many thanks for all your contributions, your sleuthing of the interesting and distinctive, your wonderful backstories

* well, my two posts merged... so one of you gets the honour of making post 500!

 

[WesternLancer]

Cottage number 6 - "Post Box Cottage" - is its local sub-post office (or, as Deanlane End is one dead-end lane, perhaps it qualifies as a sub-sub-post office!).
On that gate sign, I like the pseudo Imperial Crown; with the coarsely-scribed V and R either side of it.


I had another peruse through the Letterbox Study Group site. What I like - prefer - with our thread, though, is how some of the photos lead us into the social histories / story behind the box. I also really like the photos showing post-boxes in their settlement / surroundings. That, for me, is wonderful insight into the postal service's purpose and value to its community, past and present.

And here we are: 500* thread-posts, in what I thought was a nicbe subject of low-interest!
Many thanks for all your contributions, your sleuthing of the interesting and distinctive, your wonderful backstories

* well, my two posts merged... so one of you gets the honour of making post 500!

Well the 500th post can be to celebrate how nice that free standing brick box structure pictured there - and seemingly also nice that an adjacent house is named after it! I don't suppose that often happens.

I particularly like wall boxes that are mounted in free standing brick (or other?) structures like that.

There was one at the end of the lane where I grew up in Sussex - but it was removed a few years ago and replaced for no obvious reason that I can think of.

Thanks to Google Streetview here it is in 2011 (ands had been like that since the early 1970s but probably considerably longer)



But by 2021 it had changed to this as below
Note also changed telecomms boxes and parish notice board and indeed bin all removed.
replacements far less appealing and of lower quality fabrication that the previous ones

 

[Sun Chariot]

The scorched grass in post 497's photo, had me comparing it with Google Stteet View's image of a much more verdant and green scene.

I've looked back at this thread's photos since June - there is a surprising lack of pictures showing - in the post-box context - 2026's long hot dry summer.

So - before the forecast wet weather turns the "dead-brown" back to green - perhaps we try for a collective set of photos for August's final week: post-boxes in a parched landscape.

There was one at the end of the lane where I grew up in Sussex - but it was removed a few years ago and replaced for no obvious reason that I can think of.

Thanks to Google Streetview here it is in 2011 (ands had been like that since the early 1970s but probably considerably longer)

But by 2021 it had changed to this as below

I, too, find it sobering and a little sad, when a functional lamp-box replaces a wall-box or a pillar-box. Cost-effective: yes, it certainly is - and indicative of the digital-age's ability to offer us alternative communication methods; thus lowering postal volumes in our communities.

I liken it to when a railway station's old distinctive buildings are demolished; replaced with modern, efficient, functional. The soul gets lost too. Ditto for the lost wall-boxes in their free-standing walls.

 

[WesternLancer]

I, too, find it sobering and a little sad, when a functional lamp-box replaces a wall-box or a pillar-box. Cost-effective: yes, it certainly is - and indicative of the digital-age's ability to offer us alternative communication methods; thus lowering postal volumes in our communities.

I liken it to when a railway station's old distinctive buildings are demolished; replaced with modern, efficient, functional. The soul gets lost too. Ditto for the lost wall-boxes in their free-standing walls.

very much share this view

I visit that location where I took the google view pretty regularly. As 1st I wondered if the brick structure had to be replaced because it was subsiding into the ditch behind or some such - but having been prompted to look at street view as I just was - it doesn't look like that seemed to be the case in the 2021 picture.

 

[weepingwillowb]

....I had a walk round the village of Holme, in the south of Cumbria, and two miles from the county boundary with Lancashire, this morning. The first wall box I photographed was a King George V at the top of Sheernest Lane. Just after the cottage further down the lane is a bridge over the Lancaster Canal.
....After walking to the far end of Sheernest Lane I was in Holme Mills; here there's a V R wall box (adjacent to Holme Social Club), and then, just after I'd passed the box, there were a couple of road hogs wandering along Station Road.
....The last box in Holme, a George VI, is outside what used to be the post office. I couldn't get a photo of the box and the building because of all the cars parked that side of the road.

....There used to be a mill in Holme Mills, and coconut matting was made there; it was the terminus of a branch line from a siding at Burton and Holme railway station. The mill closed in 1975, and the building and site is now occupied by small industrial businesses. I had a walk round the site but could see no remains of the line, although there looked to be one or two surviving loading docks.

 

[WesternLancer]

Wall box attached to the Denby Pottery factory in Derbyshire yesterday.
Very sadly the whole site closes on Sunday.
The closing down sale posters refer to the large on site factory shop.
First quality items of some of the finest British pottery on sale by the receivers for between £2 to £5 per item.
End of a fine uk world class manufacturing operation.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 17:00 ==

As per ref in above post on Denby pottery wall box. Images of general location

 

[Sun Chariot]

What wonderful walk @weepingwillowb and such sobering story @WesternLancer - and super photos, both.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Wall box attached to the Denby Pottery factory in Derbyshire yesterday.
Very sadly the whole site closes on Sunday.
The closing down sale posters refer to the large on site factory shop.
First quality items of some of the finest British pottery on sale by the receivers for between £2 to £5 per item.
End of a fine uk world class manufacturing operation.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 17:00 ==

As per ref in above post on Denby pottery wall box. Images of general location

The photos of the factory remind me a bit of one or two Stoke-on-Trent potteries.

 

[WesternLancer]

The photos of the factory remind me a bit of one or two Stoke-on-Trent potteries.

Very much so. You are correct. Having also been on tours of such pottery factories in both Denby and Stoke over the years.
Observation well made.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Very much so. You are correct. Having also been on tours of such pottery factories in both Denby and Stoke over the years.
Observation well made.

A few years after Spode's closure in Stoke I had the opportunity to visit the exterior of the site with a guy who had an online heritage site - he was into urban exploration. We weren't supposed to go into any buildings, but the urbex guy got through a window, while I kept a watch out for the on-site security. Also found a Spode napkin ring in a pile of debris, and took it home, think I still have it somewhere.

 

[WesternLancer]

A few years after Spode's closure in Stoke I had the opportunity to visit the exterior of the site with a guy who had an online heritage site - he was into urban exploration. We weren't supposed to go into any buildings, but the urbex guy got through a window, while I kept a watch out for the on-site security. Also found a Spode napkin ring in a pile of debris, and took it home, think I still have it somewhere.

Nice work.

The destruction of the uk ceramics industry is very sad yet its not high profile economically or in the media. This politicians seem little bothered by it.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Nice work.

The destruction of the uk ceramics industry is very sad yet its not high profile economically or in the media. This politicians seem little bothered by it.

The main production site for Royal Doulton and Wedgwood products is now in Indonesia.

BBC - Stoke & Staffordshire - In Pictures - Wedgwood in Indonesia

Photos of workers and facilities at the Wedgwood 'outsourcing' factory in Indonesia

www.bbc.co.uk