Old Letter Boxes (Shire Library)

Pillar boxes were first introduced into Britain at the instigation of novelist and Post Office Surveyor Anthony Trollope. Nowadays the red postbox is a familiar sight in any city street or country lane. Because of their sturdy cast-iron construction British letter boxes are very durable, and examples of virtually every type from Queen Victoria's reign onwards can still be found. Pillar boxes, wall boxes of various kinds, lamp boxes and other non-standard specimens are included in this survey. It also describes and illustrates some of those from the Channel Islands, where pillar boxes were first introduced in 1852, from Scotland, which has had its own design of letter boxes since the Queen's accession in 1952, and others from the heart of London to the depths of rural Wales and the Irish Republic.