Post Boxes

An article by English Heritage about the familiar British post boxes that we take for granted in our streets nudged me into writing about the unusual one located in Haslemere, Surrey. Sadly it is only a replica of the famous Penfold hexagonal design which dates from 1866. The box was hexagonal in shape with the top decorated by acanthus leaves and balls and painted green.

The box again achieved a degree of modest fame in the cartoon series danger mouse. Danger mouse’s sidekick was named Penfold after JW Penfold since the duo’s secret hideout was in a postbox in Baker Street. Unfortunately the hide out was not a genuine Penfold postbox! Source: The Haslemere Society

Olympic gold medal winner Helen Glover, whose Cornish home town is Penzance, had a Royal Mail box painted gold in honour of her winning performance in the rowing pairs.

Helen Glover

And of course there are many different types of the red painted boxes all over our towns and cities – originally green to blend in with the landscape they were repainted in the famous ‘pillar box red’ by 1884 to increase visibility.

Red Penfold in Bath
Penfold Painted red
enamel-fronted boxes were inserted into the walls of Post Offices.

There are over 800 different types of post boxes. Perhaps you have an unusual one to share? If you do then please post it and link to this one in the comments or via a pingback.

This could become yet another obsession o_O

And if you want to read more fascinating facts about post boxes then please click on the EH link above.

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Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

66 thoughts on “Post Boxes”

  1. Charming and artistic – even functional objects have allure. I’ve been collecting photos of unusual mailboxes (when I’m brave enough to do so on private property) but am not (yet) happy with them. Need early am lighting and can’t kick myself out of bed 😀

    1. Gosh this could be another challenge. It would be interesting to see what the mail boxes look like in other countries. You could kickstart this with a gallery of some of yours 🙂

  2. I should show these to my children and tell them that they are what people used for communication when I was young. I’m sure they’d ask me where the keyboard is and what part of the box is the screen.

    1. Don’t your children write letters then? I still send my grandchildren birthday cards and postcards from my holidays – they love getting “real” mail 🙂

      1. The last letter I remember either of them writing was one to Santa, and even that was just dictated, with me taking down the details.

        They do get birthday cards from their grandparents and uncle, though, and I must admit this is something they enjoy. Even here, though, their lack of practice is evident. The envelope after they’ve opened it usually looks like it has exploded.

    1. Be interesting to see if anyone else have them. I rather like the green one too, especially painted with silver contrasting details.

        1. Do they have green ones in Ireland? I can;t remember, but I have only spent a few days there so probably didn’t focus much on post boxes. I have a vague idea that somewhere they have blue ones.

    1. Just happened to pass it when in Penzance last year, you never know when an image will come in useful 😉

  7. I like to try to find the older ones by looking at who was King or Queen from the cipher on the front. Not many around this area though, unfortunately. This could take over from ‘Benches’, Jude!
    Regards as always, Pete. x

    1. It could Pete, but it won’t! Though I wouldn’t mind a sneaky look at what there is out there. Maybe a one-off?

  8. I love postboxes, missed them when I lived in CA 🙂 There ‘s a gold one in nearby Sherborne in honour of local boy Peter Wilson who won a shooting gold medal at the olympics.

      1. Just the PO Boxes and blue mail boxes in the street, but I should have clarified that I meant the British red post boxes, especially the old ones in walls and the old style such as in your photo. Blue mail boxes just didn’t seem the same somehow 😉

      2. Yikes…you will think I’ve lost the plot Jude, can you ignore my last comment, ha! I thought I was taking about benches, as I wrote it via the notification bar! Then I realised. Right, as I was saying…and yes, still I will have to have a rummage, sure I must have one somewhere as an accidental photo though. What I was fascinated with were the metal mailboxes perched on wooden posts at the end of people’s drives. No letter boxes in the front doors there!

  9. Great photos, but I fear you have now started another obsession in my mind. It’s bad enough that I can’t go anywhere without looking out for benches, now I am going to be the same with post boxes! 🙂

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