Pillar boxes, post boxes or letter boxes

Pillar boxes, post boxes or letter boxes

Just three weeks ago, I posted a blog about telephone boxes and how some of them suffered but have been changed to others uses for the community. I had started to note that there were also a lot of different types of pillar boxes and my interest was aroused.

Mention a Pillar box of letter box and this is what most people would think of, a red metal column with a black base, s slot for letters and an overlapping cap on top. On the front is embossed a crown and EIIR  standing for Elizabeth Regina II, the ruling monarch at the time that the pillar box was put up and Post Office. The large central white patch in the photo lists the collection times and the small white patch above the letter slot tells you which day it is, only useful if it tells you tomorrow and therefore you have missed the last post

If the box only has ER, it may be Edwardian standing for Edward Rex (I apologise in advance as not every one knows Latin but I had a classical education and Rex is Latin for king, Regina is Latin for queen and appears on our coins although abbreviated on modern coins in circulation to just Reg).

But there are many different styles and I wondered how many I could find cycling around the local area in a morning and whilst I could remember some, others were lucky finds.

A small Georgian box built into a brick pillar on someone's drive, Wimblehurst Road, Horsham

A rather modern functional square box, Coltsfoot Drive Horsham

A traditional style Georgian box, Pondtail Road Horsham

A small box on s cylindrical pole, more usually found in rural areas which serve fewer houses so a traditional big box is not required

A large rectangular Georgian box built into the walls of the Rusper Village Stores.

Another small pillar box but this stands on a post with an 'x' shape cross section, opposite the Plough in Ifield.

A high capacity pillar box with two slots and an oval plan view outside Crawley Main Post Office. There is an identical one outside Horsham's former post office.

A parcel box opposite Three Bridges Station.

Another Georgian box but the GR is in a different and plainer script.

Another Georgian box but located outside a row of local shops in Roffey built in the 1960's with a pub opposite and houses beyond all dating to the same period. There had been a pillar box nearby for decades but when this area was developed, the pillar box was relocated to be outside the newly opened local post office.

Another Georgian pillar box standing in front of Horsham's old town hall, now a busy restaurant. From the photos, I am not sure whether the bottom black section is the same height in all three photos so I will have to check but two of tess photos wouldn't count towards the total tally of the morning.

But just to the left of the old town hall is a covered alleyway with another but very different post box.

The only Victorian box that I could find in Horsham, a small one built into the stone wall at St Mary's at the end of the Causeway, Horsham. There is another Victorian pillar box in the identical style built into a brick wall just outside Itchingfield parish church and another outside the former shop in Tower Hill, built into a brick pillar painted white.

My local pillar box that I can see front the front of my house, It preserves some of the colour scheme but the cap has gone. The area was just fields until the houses were built in the 1970's so it is easy to date.

A small  pillar box strapped to a wooden telegraph pole.

A green Georgian pillar box in Slinfold.

A small pillar box, similar to the one in Ifold mounted on top of an 'x' cross section pole but the crown and 'ER' motif has been replaced with lettering in red on a stainless steel plaque, bottom of Bashurst Hill, Broadbridge Heath.

A black pillar box, Bashurst Hill. 

A small Georgian pillar box built into its own brick housing, West Chiltington Lane.

And Bashurst Hill which becomes West Chiltington Lane somewhere along its length holds a record as along just a mile and a few yards length, there are five pillar boxes, on average less than 400 yards apart.

And another odd fact is that on New road which leads of West Chiltington Lane where there is a junction with Woodvale Road, there are two Elizabeth II pillar boxes, one on a metal pole and one built into a wall within 20 metres of each other. .

 A very old pillar box, now used as an ornament on someone's drive. The slot for letters is covered by a flat but it also shows where the overlapping cap of the traditional pillar box may have come from, top end of Valewood Road, Barns Green.

Another small pillar box built into its own brick housing with an unusual feature that the corners are all curved, and it is embossed as ER without the II and I know that it is definitely Edwardian. It stands outside one of the entrances to Christ's Hospital. 

In the very late 1890's there was a large diary farm here. They suffered an attack of brucellosis and all their cattle had to be destroyed. The spores survive in the ground for decades and the farm went into bankruptcy and the estate was put onto the market.

At the time Christ's Hospital, previously based in central London was looking to relocate some of their operations. The estate was cheap and next to a railway line to London so they bought it, developed the site according to their needs and gad their own pillar box at their front gate.

 A Geogian pillar box with an adaption...the box on the right is a vending machine selling booklets of postage stamps, situated behind the Horsham Railway Station. 

A Georgian pillar box and housed in a  brick pillar but it has been painted white with a black cap.

Seemingly a duplicate but notice that under the cap it is smooth whereas all the others have crenulations.

A pillar box inside my local Tesco supermarket.

Outside the local Post Office depot s another post box with three slots, the one on the left is for Horsham letters, the middle is for first class and the far right is for second class letters.

A large Edwardian pillar box with Edward's initials and the VII clearly visible, the only example I had found located on Chesworth Close, Horsham. 

And lastly, just for a bit of fun...

...a standard 20th century pillar box but it is so unusual and I have posted this photo before but I thought it was worth another airing of some guerrilla crocheting adorning a pillar box in Slinford opposite the Red Lion although both examples of guerrilla crocheting that I knew about have been removed and the boxes returned to their original state. 

So how many different pillar boxes? So ignoring the pillar box with the cocheted hat and the two Georgian boxes that I may have to go back and measure the height of the bottom black section and some of the boxes that I saw ER but it didn't make a note and some may have been Edwardian boxes and therefore I may update this blog later, plus, if you live locally and spot another example that I have missed...please email.

Meanwhile, how many? Twenty-six! Can any of you beat that in a day's cycling?

 A rare example of a green letter box in someone's front garden along Cricketfield Road.