Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

[chipbury]

Seen in Frome today.
Looks very crisply casted, is it original?

 

[WesternLancer]

Seen in Frome today.
Looks very crisply casted, is it original?

That’s on a very richly decorated and interesting lamp post.

 

[chipbury]

That’s on a very richly decorated and interesting lamp post.

Frome Valentine Gas Lamp

Frome Valentine Gas Lamp The famous Valentine Gas Lamp in Frome, Somerset, is one of the town’s most romantic landmarks. Set amidst heart-shaped cobblestones with a ‘love seat’ under the gentle glow of the gas lamp, looking down the historic cobbled street of Catherine Hill. The next ceremony is...

fromevalentinelamp.co.uk

Apparently the lamp post has its own website!

 

[WesternLancer]

Frome Valentine Gas Lamp

Frome Valentine Gas Lamp The famous Valentine Gas Lamp in Frome, Somerset, is one of the town’s most romantic landmarks. Set amidst heart-shaped cobblestones with a ‘love seat’ under the gentle glow of the gas lamp, looking down the historic cobbled street of Catherine Hill. The next ceremony is...

fromevalentinelamp.co.uk

Apparently the lamp post has its own website!

Remarkable.
Maybe Royal Mail
Or perhaps even local people gave the box a full paint strip and new fresh repaint hence the crispness of the casting.

I never found out why but about 6+ years ago Royal Mail turned up in my neighbourhood and gave the three local boxes an in situ grit blast back bare metal then a full repaint starting with bright pink primer.

This did really transform them and I wondered if it was part of a wider rolling program of such work but I never saw it happen elsewhere locally.
The neighbourhood is a Conservation Area so I wondered if that was a factor. But there are no shortage of them around the area or the country as a whole and I’ve not seen widespread evidence of that work going on, but perhaps others here might know of examples.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Fabulous backstory @WesternLancer

Family weekend near Gobowen. Today, we strolled along Llangollen Canal, for the views at the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (it's the longest and highest navigable aqueduct in the UK, 126 feet above the River Dee).
Here's a vertigo inducing photo (our hesitant German Shepherd out of view, hiding between my legs!).

The opposite side is the village Trevor; we drove past a large capacity George V wall box, its G R insignia-style different to the official font (and it is of a very similar style to the roughly-cast cypher I'd found on Hinton Ampner's box - photo posted upthread).

 

[DelW]

Family weekend near Gobowen. Today, we strolled along Llangollen Canal, for the views at the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (it's the longest and highest navigable aqueduct in the UK,126 feet above the River Dee).
Here's a vertigo inducing photo (our hesitant German Shepherd out of view, hiding between my legs!).

When a group of us took a hired narrow boat over Pontcysyllte many years ago, one of our crew decided to stand on the boat's roof midway across, to take photos. Even allowing for us all being much younger and nimbler then than now, it seemed a somewhat unwise move. In later years, he became his employer's head safety guy!

Back on topic, my previously-featured local box has celebrated Father's Day:

 

[WesternLancer]

Fabulous backstory @WesternLancer

Family weekend near Gobowen. Today, we strolled along Llangollen Canal, for the views at the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (it's the longest and highest navigable aqueduct in the UK,126 feet above the River Dee).
Here's a vertigo inducing photo (our hesitant German Shepherd out of view, hiding between my legs!).

The opposite side is the village Trevor; we drove past a large capacity George V wall box, its G R insignia-style different to the official font (and it is very similar to the roughly-cast cypher style I'd found on Hinton Ampner's box - photo posted upthread).

I've never been in the area to see that aqueduct - but it must be amazing to see.

A few years ago I was leant a copy of one of LTC Rolt's books (Railway Adventure IIRC) which I enjoyed so much I then read his canal boat works - which I very much enjoyed too, and would highly recommend. Tho I suspect readers of this forum need no introduction to his work.

 

[weepingwillowb]

A topical topper in Preston, Lancashire, adjacent to Sharoe Green post office. Created by "the knitting group, Fulwood Methodist Church, Watling Street Road, Preston, PR2 9TH." Nice to see the creators of a topper named.

 

[Sun Chariot]

A fabulously-crafted topper, @weepingwillowb and I reckon it should be modified, to reflect which nations' teams are in the quarter-finals.

 

[weepingwillowb]

A fabulously-crafted topper, @weepingwillowb and I reckon it should be modified, to reflect which nations' teams are in the quarter-finals.

No USA flag there!

 

[WesternLancer]

Outside Peterborough cathedral and Peterborough railway station.
Designs appropriate for their respective architectural contexts I thought!

 

[weepingwillowb]

In Annan (Scotland) today. The first one is on the front wall of what used to be Annan Post Office; the second one is further down the High street, and round the corner into Charles Street, next to a very sad-looking telephone box; the third is on Annerley Road. All 'anonymous.'

 

[WesternLancer]

In Annan (Scotland) today. The first one is on the front wall of what used to be Annan Post Office; the second one is further down the High street, and round the corner into Charles Street, next to a very sad-looking telephone box; the third is on Annerley Road. All 'anonymous.'

Interesting. The wall mounted one looks very anonymous!

 

[weepingwillowb]

Outside Peterborough cathedral and Peterborough railway station.
Designs appropriate for their respective architectural contexts I thought!

Nice find outside the cathedral. Is it actually on the cathedral building itself?

Interesting. The wall mounted one looks very anonymous!

II wonder if it was heavily painted over to hide any post office signage.

 

[WesternLancer]

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

 

[weepingwillowb]

I've just come across these two photos on an old memory card, taken in Buxton, March 2020.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Oh I do like a large Penfold box, B
It's an original - the founder's mark - Cochrane - on the base, ties in with my research (linked)

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

The Annan photos show the Crown of St Andrew and no monarch cypher - the post linked below explaihs why:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/post-your-post-boxes-photos-and-fun-facts.293070/post-7502926.

That "blank" wall-box lacks founder's name, lacks all casting marks, lacks posting collection info; so makes me wonder if the box is decommissioned (you mentioned the former Post Office) and perhaps a more modern "blank" panel, added for aesthetics. I can't see if its posting aperture's blocked inside.

 

[weepingwillowb]

That "blank" wall-box lacks founder's name, lacks a casting mark, lacks posting collection info; so makes me wonder if the box is decommissioned (you mentoned the former Post Office) and perhaps a more modern "blank" panel added for aesthetics. I can't see if its posting aperture's blocked inside.

Curses! I never thought to go inside the food shop to see if there was anything behind the wall-box. Probably isn't, but next time I go to Annan I'll remember to have a look.

 

[SargeNpton]

As far as I can recall, this is the only two slot box to have ever existed in Northampton, in the street known as The Drapery. Been a long time since the slots were differentiated as 1st and 2nd Class.

 

[WesternLancer]

As far as I can recall, this is the only two slot box to have ever existed in Northampton, in the street known as The Drapery. Been a long time since the slots were differentiated as 1st and 2nd Class.

I forgot that was a differentiation you used to see!

 

[weepingwillowb]

Two boxes near Garstang, Lancashire. The E R lamp box is attached to a telegraph pole in Catterall, and the King Edward VII wall box is in Bonds.

I think this may be the first E R lamp box with gold letters that I've seen in the wild. When did the Post Office stop using gold lettering?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Super stuff @weepingwillowb and I wonder if the Bonds building was once a sub post office. The smaller Edward VII wall box suits it's architecture well.

The gold detail on the Elizabeth II lamp box, has likely been undertaken by local residents, or a specific gesture by Royal Mail to recognise a local topic or person

 

[weepingwillowb]

Super stuff @weepingwillowb and I wonder if the Bonds building was once a sub post office. The smaller Edward VII wall box suits it's architecture well.

I don't think it was. Looking at old maps of Garstang and Bonds, the latter wouldn't have been big enough to warrant having one. You only have to cross a nearby bridge to be in Garstang, which had a post office by at least 1870.

The larger set of windows by the door suggests that it might have been a shop in the past.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Jul 2026 ==

A well-worn wall box in Leasgill, south of Kendal. It's in front of the Athenæum, also known as the Village Hall—there can't be too many other examples of "æ" still being in use in the UK.

Also a bonus photo of a milestone in Leasgill, diagonally across the road from the wall box.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Wonderful, quinessentially British (and that milestone is far more ornate than the ones I've seen for the old London to Portsmouth turnpike road*.

* One is still at Grayshott Devil's Punchbowl, another in central Liphook and I've completely forgotten when I spotted the third example!

 

[weepingwillowb]

Wonderful, quinessentially British (and that milestone is far more ornate than the ones I've seen for the old London to Portsmouth turnpike road*.

* One is still at Grayshott Devil's Punchbowl, another in central Liphook and I've completely forgotten when I spotted the third example!

It's weird to walk through Leasgill and think that the road through it was part of the A6 until the 1920s, when a bypass road was built.

 

[Sun Chariot]

My first close-up Charles III post box. I've seen what I "think" were CIII lamp boxes, whilst driving, on a few occasions over the past two years.

I've yet to find a CIII pillar box.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Question for you, @Sun Chariot - Scotland's boxes don't have a royal monogram on, but how about in Wales?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Question for you, @Sun Chariot - Scotland's boxes don't have a royal monogram on, but how about in Wales?

Yes, the Post Office's Wales-sited boxes have the relevant monarch's cypher.

Scotland's historical reason is linked here:

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

A non-railway topic - but with a trait that resonates with railway lovers: "Gotta get them all" e.g. numbers, track routes, haulage. I've set myself a whimsical task, to find as many variations of free-standing (pillar) and wall post boxes within a radius "one hour's drive from home". A wall...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[DelW]

Presumably the Scottish objection wouldn't apply to Charles' cypher, since the two previous Charles were Stuart kings whose realm (and lineage) included Scotland?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Presumably the Scottish objection wouldn't apply to Charles' cypher, since the two previous Charles were Stuart kings whose realm (and lineage) included Scotland?

You're absolutely right @DelW so don't tell Oliver Cromwell's direct descendents!

Interesting that, following Charles I's 1649 execution, the UK did not have a unilaterally-recognised monarch until 1660 - as Charles II stayed in exile in The Netherlands during Oliver Cromwell's time in power.

I do wonder whether, since the current monarch's coronation, Scotland has any CIII cyphered boxes; and, if so, which crown is used.
And I am interested if Standard 7MT 70013 "Oliver Cromwell" has ever dared venture into Scotland....