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Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

WesternLancer

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....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.
Some Great Wall boxes pictured.

The VR one looks like it would benefit from a once in a hundred years grit blast to beat metal and then repaint.
The others have very sharp casting features not so obscured by paint layers.

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Quite a large box in central Nottingham by St Mary’s Church.
Smart, but I noticed the metal work seemed quite pitted under the current paint.
Unless it was also historic paint loss.
 

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THC

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This one is in Republic Street, Valletta, Malta. It has lost its royal cipher but not its colour.

THC
 

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Sun Chariot

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Great capture @THC
A quick internet images-search of post boxes in Malta, I'm intrgued that some boxes are cypher-less, yet other boxes bear a cypher of Edward VII, George VI and Elizabeth II on examples I've seen online images of.

I wonder if the cypher-less doors were a replacement casting (or were ground off) after the end of Britain's colonial rule of Malta?
 

chipbury

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This post box is located at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast. Within the security area so not sure who would use it?
 

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Sun Chariot

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Wonderful find, @chipbury 8-)

It has the old, thin metallic (I believe) postal collection plate - akin to a rustier version on post 474,
It has the rare rough-cast cypher of George V, a font seen on two or three others here - post 261 is an example,
Its location, whilst within the security area these days, would have been public-access when it was installed.

The old collection-card suggests it gets a low usage. You can use Royal Mail's "find a post box near me" on its website / its app, to see whether that post box is shown (i.e. still in use).
 

chipbury

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There’s also this one in the town of Hillsborough.
 

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There’s also this one in the town of Hillsborough.

Superb! Thank you for posting it.

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No, on a wall of one of the buildings the cathedral close but very close to the cathedral.
This got me wondering if there are any post boxes set into churches at all? Whether cathedrals or indeed more modest places of worship

This one isn't set into a church building, but is on church land, which is the first time I've seen that. It's Hollins Lane Methodist Church, south of Lancaster, and this morning there was a notice up saying that it would be closing on September 6th. The post office, through the door on the left, will be staying open.

I came across the "Keep Gate Closed" sign while walking up to Hollins Lane. So I did, and walked through the gateless opening instead.
 

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WesternLancer

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Superb! Thank you for posting it.

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This one isn't set into a church building, but is on church land, which is the first time I've seen that. It's Hollins Lane Methodist Church, south of Lancaster, and this morning there was a notice up saying that it would be closing on September 6th. The post office, through the door on the left, will be staying open.

I came across the "Keep Gate Closed" sign while walking up to Hollins Lane. So I did, and walked through the gateless opening instead.
Thanks - do you mean it is the Methodist church that is closing (ie closing as a place of worship)?

Interesting to see the Post Office in such a location
 

Sun Chariot

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This one isn't set into a church building, but is on church land, which is the first time I've seen that.
Winchester has an Elizabeth II wall-box set into the garden wall of the Deanery*, to the catherdral's immediate south. I don't know if the Deanery is still Church-owned: it now has a snall quaint bookshop in one corner.

* Just across the cathedral lawn and at the corner of Cathedral Close with Dome Alley


There’s also this one in the town of Hillsborough.
Cochrane founder's-name cast into its base, by the look of it; so a well-looked-after small Penfold. Great find!
 
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The post box in Beetham, near Milnthorpe, outside the Old Post Office. A couple of photos online, dating from before the box was in its current position, show the lower-right window pane red - perhaps that was where the box was originally until the post office closed.
 

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WesternLancer

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Recently seen in Letchworth Garden City.
Not sure that I’ve seen a box with an eye on top before.
I usually think remains of things on top are from post office enamel sign holders but perhaps sometimes they are associated with this sort of thing.

What is the purpose of it? To crane in the pillar box?
 

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Sun Chariot

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Great discovery @WesternLancer 8-) Yes, it is the lifting eye.
It's typically used* to winch-lift a pillar-box, when installing it or removing it. The lifting eye has a bolt-thread and usually it's turned upside-down after use, so that it's hidden / safe but ready to use again in future.

* Although, some years ago, I watched three contractors tip and roll a pillarbox off their flatbed lorry, before using a mini-digger to upright the box and drag it to the hole...
 

chipbury

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I’ve walked and cycled past this box in Bradford on Avon loads of times and finally got a picture today.
Pictures show a gold post box and commemorative plaque on the back for canoeing.
 

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Sun Chariot

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An interactive map of all the gold-painted (2012 Olympics and Paralympics gold medal winners) commemorative post boxes, is linked here:
Boxes listed here, also:

Today, whilst visiting my Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law, we passed the "NHS blue" pillar box at Marston Moretaine (was painted and decorated April 2020, in honour of the late Capt Sir Tom Moore's centenary birthday).
 

WesternLancer

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I’ve walked and cycled past this box in Bradford on Avon loads of times and finally got a picture today.
Pictures show a gold post box and commemorative plaque on the back for canoeing.
You don’t seem to see them so often it seems to me.

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Apols as pictures taken after dark so light is poor.
But first shows very crisply restored and sharp casting features at Loughborough Central GCR station by entrance.

Second is far less crisp due to many coats of paint on platform 1 at Loughborough Midland station.

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Great discovery @WesternLancer 8-) Yes, it is the lifting eye.
It's typically used* to winch-lift a pillar-box, when installing it or removing it. The lifting eye has a bolt-thread and usually it's turned upside-down after use, so that it's hidden / safe but ready to use again in future.

* Although, some years ago, I watched three contractors tip and roll a pillarbox off their flatbed lorry, before using a mini-digger to upright the box and drag it to the hole...
Thanks for this explanation which makes things clear!

Ref the use of a mini digger to stand a box up, i suspect the paintwork didn’t look too good after that…
 

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A G R box just over a quarter of a mile from Bassenthwaite village, in an area called Chapel. The bank looks to have been worn away by 90+ years of people using the box. Collection plates used to have on them the location of each box; when did that stop?

On the bus journey back to Kendal, I spotted a lamp box in a hedge in Staveley, and managed to get a snap of it. Is it the responsibility of the owner of the hedge to ensure that the box doesn't get hidden by hedge growth?
 

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WesternLancer

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A G R box just over a quarter of a mile from Bassenthwaite village, in an area called Chapel. The bank looks to have been worn away by 90+ years of people using the box. Collection plates used to have on them the location of each box; when did that stop?

On the bus journey back to Kendal, I spotted a lamp box in a hedge in Staveley, and managed to get a snap of it. Is it the responsibility of the owner of the hedge to ensure that the box doesn't get hidden by hedge growth?
Love the hedge location !
 

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