Show us letterboxes...

Phil, I was about to post a few images of Irish boxes but found this blog which is more interesting.

Phil Wood wrote: Can you remember where you found yours?

Bishops Castle. I also have a shot of the same design at Walton on the Wolds but the lettering is partly obscured by thick paint.

I read that the Edward VIII wall boxes had their doors changed apart from the one you mentioned which was missed. Pillar boxes remained with the cipher, perhaps because the doors were curved and bigger so more expensive to cast. There must have been a lot of hostility to the abdication for the king, "cancelled" in contemporary rhetoric!

alanfrombangor wrote: I find the Type G boxes rather ugly in comparison with the round pillar boxes with the black skirt. This one looks particularly drab in faded gold, it'll be interesting to see if it reverts to red when repainted. 2012 really does seem a different world, there was more optimism then... and we were aall teen years younger!

While I agree that the gold is not as good as red I fear that the Royal Mail are currently saying that they will keep the 2012 gold boxes in gold. Not that I am offended by the colour very often - no gold medals round here!

alanfrombangor wrote: That's a lovely early Victorian box, Phil, I have one from 2010 but with the collection day in a different place.

The 'day' plate holder is a later addition (screwed on in the case of the two around here). Personally I think my example is cleverer - using the door jamb to prevent the day plate from being removed by all and sundry. Your example needed the addition of a lump of iron on the door to block the day plate holder. Then again yours actually has a plate in the holder, I guess they don't bother any more. Can you remember where you found yours?

alanfrombangor wrote: And here's a rarity from Welshpool

Possibly not as rare as the first one - there are apparently 171 surviving Edward VIII boxes, though many are wall rather than pillar boxes. The rarest working box (or equal rarest) is an Edward VIII wall box in Suffolk, the only one of it's type and reign still in use. If I'm ever that way I'll post a picture.

Howard_S wrote: Another golden box, this one celebrating Lily van den Broeke, a woman from Oxford winning gold in the 2012 London Paralympics. Seems like another age.

10 years is a long time, the paint could do with a touch-up.

This is a Type G box - a type I haven't shown yet. They weren't made for long, 1970s but I haven't found the exact dates. Fairly scarce these days but a number have had the gold paint treatment including a pair in Cheshunt for Laura Trott, the UK's most successful female Olympic athlete.

Continuing my survey of UK post boxes here is one I visited today.

It is another rare design known as the Second National Standard produced by a Birmingham foundry from 18969 for a few years. They are not as scarce as the same foundry's fluted column pillar boxes, it is thought that there are about 30 surviving in uses. Given the scarcity I was surprised to find two within walking distance of my home.

Second National Standard wall box.


A99ii, Min AF 24-85 RS

Edited by Phil Wood - 28 June 2022 at 23:11

Today's Post Office mail box is of a much more modern type. Introduced in 1996 this is a Type M box, after a few decades of modernistic designs this was a return to a more classic look.

Lamp box, Type M, Newbury.




Edited by Phil Wood - 21 June 2022 at 11:29

Phil, Birkenhead/Liverpool/Crosby (for the Gormley statues) would be good for a Dyxum DM.