BB2102 : Postman Pat's and Other Boxes

Tuesday 12th - Thursday 14th January 2021

Any story about Postboxes in the Kendal area has to start with Postman Pat.  His creator, John Cunliffe, lived on Greenside; that is up the hill from the Town Hall in Kendal and close to The Rifleman's Arms pub.  At the west end of the terrace is, or rather was, the Post Office where he was first introduced to the life of a Postman going about his work in Greendale.

Later, when teaching at Castle Park Primary School, a colleague, Molly Clifton, took him around farms in the Kendal area, meeting her friends who would become the inspiration for characters in the Postman Pat series.

Stuart was first out of the box, so to speak.  In addition to bagging three reigns he found two decommissioned boxes, shown later in the "Bonus Box"

Margaret & I were next out.  

I thought our first box, next to the Punchbowl at Barrows Green, was rather mundane: a very modern E11R. However, when Stephen advised that the original and the bus shelter were taken out by a car crash six years ago this box suddenly took on a new meaning.

The EVIIR is at Beehive Lane. I confess that we didn't actually visit it.  We intended to do so but realised that we would be passing through two or more farmyards in order to reach it without using the treacherous B6254 racetrack.  Given the understandable C-19 sensitivities of farmers at the present time we didn't want to do that.  Consequently I think it reasonable to claim the box as we could actually see it from the Back of Helm road.  Just.  Can you spot it?

The EVIIR photo below is the same one but from an earlier visit.  

At the railway station was another EIIR and yet another along Burton Road.  This one has the remarkable daily collection time of 9 a.m. most days but 7 a.m. on Sundays!  Glad I am not a postman.

The Natland Post Office has a GR.

I was intending to fill in the gaps on Wednesday or Thursday.  I knew where to go but rain then sleet intervened.  The VR above therefore is a cheat from BB1117 and the GVIR is a cheat from BB1836 !  So, Tony, you can relax- I am only claiming 3 and a distance of 5.2 miles.

Mike T was with Cherrie.  I thought we might encounter them as at first it seemed from their WhatsApp postings that they were doing the same route as us but in reverse but they weren't.  Mike reports:

After a late start we walked through Oxenholme (E11R) and then joined the North end of The Helm eventually reaching Barrows Green (E11R). We headed SW across the fields and emerged at the end of Halfpenny Lane on the A65 (E11R). Then onto Sedgwick (GR) and home along the canal to Natland (GR). Circa 7 miles.

Next to post was Terry who was out with Beverley.

A quick test of the road surface (not icy for a change) and we were off going down Church Road. However as we started going down hill we hit ice and gingerly shuffled our way to the Hare & Hounds. On the way noticing that the post box, just past Hutchinsons joiners, has been taken away!

Dropping down to the Old Road and turning right onto the Brigsteer Causeway, we followed our usual exercise route, albeit very slowly due to the ice. Instead of turning right into Lord's Plain Causeway we decided to continue on to Brigsteer and took a short cut through to Parkend Lane and consequently missed the Brigsteer post box!

Walking back to Levens is not too safe on the road, so we took the path through Brigsteer Woods and instead of sliding on the ice, we slipped on the mud. Finally arriving back in Levens we bagged our one and only post box and completed our 5.7 mile perambulation.

Fortunately the missing box is still shown on Google Maps so I have "captured" it for Terry and called it a GR which it or might not have been!

Mike B set off on his electric bike, obviously intending to cover a lot of ground. He reports;

Tony, described by Stephen as the Pillar Box Master, was expected to produce an outstanding result.  As it happens, he didn't tick all the boxes (!) although he did capture Postman Pat.

I did just over 4 miles. Set off from home across to Rinkfield to bag a GR down to the Lound to get my E11R out of the way. Into Kirkland, up Gillingate to Greenside and Postman Pat. Across and down Fellside into town via Sepulchre Lane to the old police yard. On to Thorny Hills for my VR and along to the Tap then back via Fletcher Park to home. My thoughts were that to find the oldest boxes I need to be in the oldest parts of the town.

There are actually seven categories in England if you include the "Anonymous" (only in use from 1879 to 1883 when the royal crest was added) but as I assumed that one of these would be impossible to find the target was now realistically six but further reduced to five as the only GVIIIR in the county was in Barrow. Being the only person (probably in the world) with an interest in post boxes I had thought I would win hands down by easily bagging all five plus Postman Pat's box on Greenside.

Robin's permitted area is Settle.

A clear blue sky but still treacherous underfoot and off to Giggleswick. Near the 17^th C Black Horse an E11R in the wall. Then a stroll alongside the burbling Tems, past Lords, Giggleswick’s cricket ground, to Hunters View and a GR box in the wall. At Cammock Lane is a plain postbox.  I WhatsApped it with the comment "No monarch claiming this old box - who could blame 'em?"  Tony soon put me right, saying "This is a really rare one, being one of the earliest in use from 1879 to 1883 from which date they started to use the Royal Crest."

Just when things were starting to quieten down, Stan struck with ten pictures.  He seemed to have visited every Post Box in the centre of Kendal but sadly all E11Rs or GRs.

Stephen was planning to do his search on Thursday.  He was wondering if he might find an EVIIIR  He knows the nearest is in Barrow but doesn't fancy their infection rates.  He adds "There is another in Colne. Their rate is also high but it's near to Turf Moor..... Clarets have made it to the 5th round draw and only played one match."

Come the day, he decided the weather was aginst him so he used his Irish Postal History connections for these two.  Whern I expressed surprise that the Irish were still using UK Monarchs, it was explained to me that painting them Irish green but retaining the crests was to represent victory over the Brits.

John B, our Florida Snowbird, sent us a rather different contribution.

I haven’t seen any of our (blue, non-royal) mailboxes (or postboxes) on my walks with the dogs.  But I realized that, since I can put mail in my own (receiving) mailbox and the mailman will pick it up, this is a mailbox!

I asked John to take a photo from the opposite direction so that we can see where he lives.  He replied:

The picture does show where I live. The mailbox is on the opposite side of the road so the mailman only travels down the street once.  Don’t forget they are in vehicles, not on foot, so all mailboxes are only on one side of the street.

Bonus Box:

Tony's closing comments were:

Robin's the clear winner with the glorious bag of an Anonymous and I'm happy to hand over my self anointed Postmaster crown to him on bended knee.

The challenge was an innovative suggestion by Mike B and I look forward to the next one, I think!!

Robin responded:

Humbled, very humbled! Tony, you can arise now, but as it is due to your superior PB knowledge, I feel the prize should be shared.  

The Giggleswick / Kendalmans signpost in the Bonus Box confirms a link between Settle and Kendal from the 17^th to 19^th centuries and is a nod to the old cattle drovers’ track leading to a ford across the Ribble and into town. Local historians record cattle driven from Kendal (but possibly originating from as far north as Scotland) through Settle to the Vale of York. Selling cattle along the way for use in the leather, glue and horn trades as well as for food, the drovers underpinned prosperity for many businesses including, notoriously, ale houses on the route.

© The Postal Museum

It was of course Rowland Hill who introduced the Penny Post in 1840 but at that time letters had to be taken to a Post Office or have them collected by a Bellman.

The first Postboxes in the UK were at the suggestion of the novelist Anthony Trollop who in the 1850s was a Surveyor's Clerk for the Post Office.  He had seen road-side letter boxes in France and Belgium and proposed their use in Britain.  Four cast iron pillar boxes were installed in Jersey in 1852, a successful experiment that was taken up on the mainland.

These were red but in 1859 the colour was changed to green so that they were deliberately unobtrusive. However people complained that they were difficult to find so a return to red was specified in 1874.

There is much more to be discovered at The Postal Museum.

If you want to know where postboxes are to be found (any vintage) click on Find Your Nearest Postbox.

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