Post Boxes

Hi all Whilst journeying for our "beckon Butty " this morning I had never realised that my local post box was a George box. So this is for my Pillar Box enthusiast friend.

Hi Philip, I have one of those and it is only 8" tall. At the moment it is full of $2 pieces. 6.30 Mon to Fri. and 12.00 noon Sats. No GR on it though just Post Office.

Hi Philip, and thanks for that It certainly is a George box, as you say, but not just any George - it's George V The GPO didn't anticipate any more King Georges, so the only used the cypher GR After Edward VIII abdicated - boxes with his cypher are quite rare! - they used GVIR for his brother, to distinguish those boxes from his father's PS The 'anonymous' boxes are from a period in the reign of Victoria when the cypher was omitted

This mail box stands in the shadow of the Westgate, Warwick.

This "mail box" as you call it is in fact one of the earliest (fluted) designs of Victorian pillar boxes - there are two in Warwick, the other one is at Eastgate on Castle Hill

I see that you have the Eastgate box on your photo site already. I passed by that box many times between Sept 65 and June 70 on foot and never really noticed it. Thereafter, I had a motorcycle/car and one misses a great deal 'on the move'. It appears to be fairly unique in having a vertical slot.

BTW, if I was to use the term 'pillar box' here, nobody would know what I was talking about. Edited by member, 28th Aug 2014 12:36 pm

I'm sure most Coventry folk know what a pillar box is - a mail box I'm not so sure There are three main types of POSTBOX - Pillar Box Wall Box Lamp Box

Hi all I have always known pillar boxes as just that. No matter where they are sited or the style of construction. I was told by my mum that when I was four, she gave me a letter to post in a pillar box, but unfortunately I posted the bread & jam sandwich which was in my other hand.

We were sent round to the "Pillar box" as kids as the one on Moseley Avenue did not involve crossing any roads. We felt it was a real adventure going round the "block" afterwards, up Matterson Avenue, Lawrence Saunders and back home to Poole Road. I still call them pillar boxes. The one I use in Tamworth is a small box on a pole, what is that called ?

Postbox?

Mail Boxes in WA. Letter boxes on the front doors or on a stand at the end of the drive. You can't beat seeing all your birthday cards coming through the letter box on your front door.

By the fact it's a box mounted on a pillar I think Pillar Box is appropriate.

According to the different references. A pillar box was a post box mounted on a pole, a round pillar box is in the shape of a pillar, hexagonal boxes are called Penfolds. In the country they are called Lampboxes and Wallboxes in walls.

The "definitive authority on the subject, acknowledged by Royal Mail and the British Postal Museum & Archive" is The Letter Box Study Group, so I guess we should settle on calling them letter boxes, although they're not only used for letters! Yesterday, I travelled down to deepest Dorset, to visit the oldest postbox (or letter box!) still in use in Britain - this beauty "The octagonal box was made by John M Butt & Co. of Gloucester between 1853 and 1856, and is cast with Queen Victoria’s cipher. The box is about five feet high and each angle of the eight sides is fluted, which gives it a distinctive appearance. The slot for the letters is very small and is vertical rather than the more familiar horizontal. A swinging flap, on the inside of the hole, keeps out the rain." I think five feet is an exaggeration - more like 4 feet 4 inches I made it

Here's a more modern variety MR - it's situated in the retail centre of Accington