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England has an incredible history – and Carlisle can lay claim to many of these significant moments in time. Most people know about its early days as the Roman community of Lugvalium, its Cumbria ‘border city’ origins and its ancient castle.
What is perhaps not as well known is the fact that Carlisle is also the home of the first ever ‘Pillar Post box’ – and we have the French to thank for it. Postboxes, or pillar boxes, were introduced to the UK by Anthony Trollope after he saw them in France.
During Trollope’s time, receiving and especially delivering mail was primarily an activity that only the wealthy could afford to indulge in. That’s mainly because although post boxes are literally all over the place today, they weren’t nearly as common back then and you likely had to travel miles in order to reach one.
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As industrialisation flourished it placed strain on the current postal system – and demand was growing. In order for progress and trade to continue to improve, things had to change and it was clear a new system for sending mail was needed.
Following his visit to the continent, Trollope chose Carlisle as the place to trial these new fashioned post boxes and the city’s original pillar box – the first in mainland Britain – started receiving mail in September 1853.
Trollope was a General Post Office (GPO) high-ranking official at the time and suggested using a lockable, roadside pillar box made from cast-iron, here people could drop off their post. Letters would be collected at regular times by GPO staff.
Back then, these ‘pillar boxes’ was made by Messrs Abbot and Sons for the princely sum £7.10s. They were crafted in the firm’s Gateshead foundry.
The man who designed the first post box is John Wornham Penfold, who was born almost 200 years ago. At the time, he was a leading architect and founding member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
His design for the distinctive British hexagonal post box – adorned with acanthus leaves, balls and the monarch’s royal coat of arms – was commissioned by the Post Office in 1866. It created a national standard for letter boxes.
The first post box in Carlisle – and the first of its kind in Britain – was installed on the corner between Botchergate and South Street. Although we can rarely venture along along half a dozen streets without catching a glimpse of those familiar red structures today, that post box must have cut a lonely and solitary figure back then.
However it was gone by 1890s and a replica was placed in front of the old town hall years later.
A plaque since placed on the box commemorating its historical significance now reads: “This replica Victorian pillar box was installed on 15 December 1989 to commemorate the fact that in 1853 Carlisle was the first place in mainland Britain to have a roadside pillar box.”
Incredibly, this particular mail receptacle is still in use today and as we now know, the post box trial in general was an astounding success.
According to the Royal Mail, post boxes now stand within half a mile of more than 98% of the UK population. There are about 115,500 pillar boxes in every nook and cranny of the UK, including freestanding ones and those attached to walls and lampposts.
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