Today we helped out a Daily Mail reader with a burning question about Victorian postboxes. If you have a burning postbox question, you don't need to go to the mail! Send us a message here and we'll do our best to get you an answer.
Membership includes:
📰 Our quarterly "Newsletter" - 50+ full-colour pages
👥 LBSG meetings - 1 virtual, 2 in person
🛒 The LBSG shop - dive into the depths of postbox knowledge
📧 The LBSG mailing list - talk to LBSG members across the UK and the world
Photo: LBSG AGM 2025, Shifnal
📮📅LBSG 2026-27 MEMBERSHIPS
💷RATES - Held at £34 for our 50th Anniversary Year
👶WANT TO JOIN? - up to 3 months free! Your membership stays until renewal on 1 June 2027
📮EXISTING MEMBERS - watch for the renewal notice in June
➡️ lbsg.org/membership ⬅️
Proof that the GPO/Post Office/Royal Mail have always been altering and tinkering with post boxes.
⌛️ 📮FIXED AND CHANGING
Our archive photo reveals features Royal Mail introduced to post boxes:
✉️Stamp Vending Machine
🗓Gold top for Sunday collections
➡Post Office Direction Sign
This Edward VII postbox in London lost all these features but is still in use
#postboxsaturday
Is this Britain's rarest postbox?
BBC Berkshire's Lorin Bozkurt met up with LBSG member Robert Cole to find out more www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
🇮🇪 📮 Irish wall boxes (LBSG archives) 📷🕰️
SHARED HERITAGE - Ireland and the UK had the same postboxes until Irish independence
CYPHERS - While some had the British royal cyphers removed, others remained
BOTH NATIONS - this Edward VII wall box also carries the Irish Free State emblem
#postboxsaturday
Aw no! Hopefully one day!
👑📮⏳30 YEARS AGO
EDWARD VIII - reigned less than a year; few postboxes were made in his name
ORIGINAL LOCATION - Installed in Liverpool in 1936
REPAIRED - the fix to the collection plate holder has been there nearly half the box's lifetime!
Have you seen any Edward VIII postboxes?
#postboxsaturday
📮✉️Exciting Post Today!💌🎉
The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society @letterappsoc.bsky.social sent us a lovely card to celebrate our 50th Anniversary!
Thank you to all letter writers everywhere for keeping our postboxes alive!
#postboxsaturday
📮🕰️A glimpse into the LBSG archives: this George VI wall box once stood proudly outside Bratton Fleming Post Office. The office closed a year after this 2007 photo - and today, both box and building are gone. A little slice of postal history saved in a snapshot. #postboxsaturday
In the LBSG we do not give out numbers or locations of vulnerable postboxes in order to protect them.
Preserving history one letter box at a time. Inspired by Jean Young Farrugia’s The Letter Box, our group has spent years tracking down old and unusual pillar boxes—like Edward VIIIs—and working with Royal Mail to save them from replacement #postboxsaturday
It wasn't meant to say "This was our first postbox saturday" but that works too! :D
The first LBSG meeting took place in June 1979 in London. Designer Tony Gibbs attended to present his Type K pillar box, which would be appearing on the streets from 1980. Over the decades since we have had many more meetings, and seen many more new postboxes. But this was our first #postboxsaturday
"One Saturday afternoon early in 1976, three men met... each, in their own way, had become interested in the subject of the roadside letter box."
50 years later, their new-founded Letter Box Study Group is still going, protecting and preserving the UK's postbox heritage
#postboxsaturday
Actually, the modern steel lamp and pillar boxes with the Scottish Crown may be in Charles III's reign, but there are few of these.
The Scottish Crown dates are the same as the EIIR cipher dates. This box is 1990s-2014. But probably mid-90s as the later Machan boxes are all dated.
Dec 24: Blists Hill
This living Victorian museum invites its visitors to step back over 125 years to the end of the Victorian era. Sharing traditional crafts, vehicles and food, it also features this slightly less authentic replica Penfold pillar box.
Website: www.ironbridge.org.uk/visit/blists...
Dec 23: Dover Transport Museum
Alongside historic vehicles, a model railway and vintage shop fronts, this museum also features a George V pillar box. The crack in the door shows the sort of damage pillar boxes can take over time.
Website: www.dovertransportmuseum.org.uk
Dec 22: Amberley Museum
This beautiful heritage museum in West Sussex has not one, not two, but six postboxes - from this fabulous Edward VII pillar box, through to the experimental George V phone box/post box combination! And it's a wonderful day out, too!
Website: www.amberleymuseum.co.uk
Dec 21 - National Museum of Flight
From the early days of flight, through World War II, to supersonic jets, there's something for everyone at this museum in East Lothian. And if you like postboxes, it's also got a post-1905 Edward VII pillar box!
Website: www.nms.ac.uk/national-mus...
Dec 20: Isle of Wight Postal Museum
Our own Arthur Reeder runs this extensive postal museum near Newport, and it is always a favourite. His collection includes over 200 postboxes from all eras. Want to visit? Please contact Arthur to make an appointment.
Website: www.postalmuseum.co.uk/page21.html
Dec 19 - GWR Toddington
The Gloucester Warwickshire Steam Railway runs alongside the former route of the Great Western Railway's main line, taking in the beautiful Cotswolds. Toddington Station features this repainted Victorian pillar box to collect donations for the railway
Website: www.gwsr.com
Dec 18 - Potteries Museum
Most notable for its Staffordshire Hoard exhibition, this museum explores the culture and history of The Potteries. One of its exhibitions is this fabulous green First National Standard pillar box, on display in its shop.
Website: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/
Dec 17 - Beaulieu Motor Museum
Beaulieu is well worth a visit if you're interested in the history of cars and other motorised transport. A postbox is not a key exhibit here, but this Victorian wall box adds to the scene outside this reconstructed garage.
Website: www.beaulieu.co.uk
Dec 16 - Museum for Communication, Berlin
This is the world's oldest postal museum. Founded in 1872 by the German postmaster general in the 19th Century, it features many historic German postboxes amongst its exhibitions.
Website: www.mfk-berlin.de/homepage/
Dec 15 - Milestones Museum
This living museum recreates the Victorian past of Hampshire, but unlike earlier museums in this calendar it's all indoors, no raincoat needed! Their postboxes include this lovely replica Penfold from 1988 outside the fire station.
Website: www.milestonesmuseum.org.uk
Breaking postbox news! A Charles III lamp box has been installed in Antarctica! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Dec 14 - St Fagan's
This museum explores the history of Wales through the lives of its people. Amongst the outdoor attractions is the Blaen-waun Post Office, originally constructed in 1936 and now with a George V 'hovis' lamp box carefully installed in the wall.
Website: museum.wales/stfagans/
