An anachronism at Stevenage

[Mr Bunt]

The present Stevenage station opened in July 1973 and replaced the original GNR one about a mile further north.

Oddly though, set in the footbridge wall at the town centre end the new station has a George V postbox. This would have been at least 38 years old when the new station opened.

Was it moved there from the original station?

[earlswood nob]

Morning all
Postboxes move around, occasionally you see them with the slot blocked by a plate, a while after that they will move, perhaps to a store of old postboxes, or perhaps to be reused. They also last a very long time as they are cast iron so hardly rust. There used to be (40yrs ago) a VR (Queen Victoria) box on Wokingham station.
Earlswood nob

[Mickey]

Deleted

[earlswood nob]

G'day all
I think you're right not to publicise where the box is. There was a small country box on a post across the heath from where I live (about 1 mile) that was a VR box. It was at the end of a drive where a Victorian Mayor lived and I guess it was put there for him as there are no other houses nearby. I disappeared one night, much to the disappointment of a local Post Office manager who was trying to persuade the local depot to replace it, as he wanted it as a mailbox for his house. He wasn't responsible for it's disappearance as I walk past his house most days and he's still got his old red painted home made wooden box.
Earlswood Nob

[richard]

You can buy replica VR "Penfold" boxes (the angular hexagonal/octagonal, I forget which as I'm 4000+ miles away). I was under the impression that most of the Penfolds you see around were replicas that had been installed.

[Postman Prat]

We had a postbox, which was mounted on a post, stolen a few years ago, presumably for its contents. Not the best of planning - instead of cutting the post at the same height as the box it was cut about 6 inches from the ground and they had to carry the excess post, and fiddle around to get it in their van!

They didn't do their homework either. That box was one of the least used in the area, if you were on collections you had to drive about a mile down a lane just to look into an empty box!! After the theft it was not replaced

[Mr Bunt]

Was it really 40 years ago??.

That comment raises an interesting point: the George V wall box on the footbridge at the "new" Stevenage station has probably been there now longer than its original location!

 

[Mr Bunt]

You can buy replica VR "Penfold" boxes (the angular hexagonal/octagonal, I forget which as I'm 4000+ miles away). I was under the impression that most of the Penfolds you see around were replicas that had been installed.

Our local Penfold pillar box appears to be an original. It's also very well protected from vandalism or theft.

About 120 years after it was first erected a police station was built next door to it!

Our Edward VIII pillar box (near Cuffley station, I'll say no more) is at serious risk though, nestling in a nondescript post war housing estate.

[Boris]

Postman pat, I think you can be sure it wasn't for the post in it,it was for the post holding it as well as the box, when they weighed it in at the local scrap yard

[2392]

And speaking of old post boxes there is quite a clebrity one outside Whitley Bay [now Metro] station. It is one of these combined phone & postboxes. The postbox being in the back wall on the outside of the where the phone is mounted. As well as the usual opening for letters it also have a stamp machine to sell you a card of stamps. Mind you that's been out of order for many years due no doubt to a combination of the change in coinage and the rise in the price of a stamp. What's more as there were only around 400 of these style 'boxes produced and few apparently survive out there on the street, it has it's own grade 2 [if not 1] listed status to nominally at least protect it. There is even an information poster mounted in the ticketing area with this information on along with a "pot" history of the station and Whitley Bay itself.

[Postman Prat]

Postman pat, I think you can be sure it wasn't for the post in it,it was for the post holding it as well as the box, when they weighed it in at the local scrap yard

Hi

You could be right, perhaps the local villans are brighter than I give them credit for. On the other hand this was 15-20 years ago, what were scrap prices like then??

PP

[Kestrel]

[quote=" Our Edward VIII pillar box (near Cuffley station, I'll say no more) is at serious risk though, nestling in a nondescript post war housing estate.[/quote]

Edward VIII? Did he last long enough to have a pillar boxed numbered after him? It must be worth a bit if it exists.

[giner]

Maybe it's stuffed with letters to 'er over there.

[earlswood nob]

Good Morning all
According to the website, about 130 pillar boxes bearing the cypher of Edward VIII, survive.
17 of these being in the London Area.
Earlswood nob

[Mr Bunt]

Edward VIII? Did he last long enough to have a pillar boxed numbered after him? It must be worth a bit if it exists.

It's reckoned there are about 16,000 Royal Mail postboxes in the UK.

In total 271 were made during Edward VIII's reign and about 130 of them (all pillar boxes) survive with his cipher on. The real rarities are Edward VIII wall boxes; only 6 were ever made!