Oval shaped pillar boxes have been a feature of three different designs of pillar box. The large dual aperture Type C boxes designed to separate mail at the time of posting; and also the Type D and Type E boxes, made in 1931, which had a single aperture at one end and a stamp vending… Read More


Royal Mail in the Welsh language. This inscription can be found cast on to Bantam boxes and the large Meter boxes provided for business use, it is also seen on Garage boxes and Supermarket boxes. Since 1952 the sensitivities of the Scots have been recognised by replacing the EIIR cipher on letter boxes with the… Read More


Queen Victoria’s royal cipher appeared on all the Penfold boxes and when a mould was taken from one of them to produce replica-Penfold boxes the VR cipher was part of the design. Royal Mail had to seek special permission from the Lord Chamberlain to be able to use boxes bearing the VR cipher in Elizabeth… Read More


Romec was launched as a facilities management company in 2000 having been spun out of the Royal Mail Group’s facilities and engineering division. It is still 51% owned by Royal Mail. Romec is responsible for the upkeep of Royal Mail’s letter box estate. It also manufactures the Business boxes for meter mail, assembles the Bantam… Read More


Suttie & Company of Greenock produced a very distinctive pillar box in 1856-1857. It had a “stove-like” appearance and was topped by an impressive cast crown. They were commissioned for use in Scotland. A single museum-held Scottish example survives in the UK today, but a handful of Suttie boxes still in postal use can be… Read More


The TK4—sometimes nicknamed the Vermillion Giant—was a design based on Giles Gilbert Scott’s TK3 but also incorporating a GR-ciphered letter box and two stamp vending machines in its rear side. 50 were made in 1927. In practice they proved difficult to site, with access needed all around the box and the mechanical noise of the… Read More


The Universal Collection Plate Holder made its first appearance on lamp boxes dating from 1980. It was a substantial holder for the collection times information plate and the next collection tablet, square in section and sturdy in service. Ucph’s have also been widely used as replacement holders on many wall boxes and retro-fitted to lamp… Read More


John Vaudin is supposed to have been a blacksmith who worked at the Le Feuvre foundry in Bath Street, St Helier, on Jersey. It was Mr John Vaudin who received an order, in 1852, from George Creswell, Surveyor of the Western District, and Anthony Trollope’s senior, for seven pillar boxes, four for St. Helier, Jersey… Read More


Walker’s name makes a brief appearance in the history of letter boxes when he took over the Eagle Foundry in Birmingham from Smith and Hawkes. His name as BERND P WALKER is found on large size wall boxes cast from 1874-1879. It also appears on medium size and small size wall boxes. In 1879 the… Read More


X-ray crystallography is a fundamental tool for examining the structure of materials including, especially, metals and alloys. All Bantam boxes are cast with a test nodule included in the mould; these nodules are then subjected to metallurgical testing to prove the structure of the spheroidal graphite grade of cast iron.… Read More