Postboxes

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Harberton Postboxes

There are five postboxes within the Harberton village website area: (from east to west)

There is also a 12.00 Saturday collection outside Totnes Delivery Office on the Southern Industrial Estate, and in Totnes Post Office in Fore Street..
As of 28th October 2007 there are no longer any Sunday collections at all, anywhere.

Postboxes bear the monogram of the monarch during whose reign they were installed.

Dundridge (King George V 1910-1936)	Church (Queen Elizabeth II 1952-)	The Manor (King Edward VII 1901-1910)	Leigh Hill (Queen Victoria -1901)	Old Hazard (Queen Elizabeth II 1952-)

Snail's Pace

The boxes outside The Manor and The Old Forge, Leigh Hill, both have anti-snail brushes fitted in the letter slot. From personal experience, this is what can happen to those that don't (received from Royal Mail Customer Services Centre Tel: 08457 740 740)

"Dear Customer
I am very sorry that the enclosed letter has been damaged and subsequently delayed.
The item was found during a scheduled collection from a posting box and had been eaten by snails. Unfortunately, despite regular cleaning and placing pellets in the boxes, we find that snails and slugs still occasionally manage to creep into the apertures, fall down into the box and start eating the glue /adhesive on the stamps and envelopes.
I am sorry for any problems caused by this unusual "tampering" and while I am pleased to be able to return your letter, albeit in a damaged condition, I regret the understandable annoyance caused.
Yours sincerely
Customer Services"

Postboxes - A Briefest History

Part of our landscape is the bright red Royal Mail postbox, now over 150 years old. To celebrate this birthday, English Heritage and the Royal Mail will be making a register of all our pillar boxes, wall boxes and lamp boxes, and a new policy has been agreed to keep all boxes now in use in their existing locations.

The first postbox was installed in 1852 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, (or was it Jersey?) by the novelist Anthony Trollope, then a surveyor's clerk. The first mainland box was at Bishops Caundle in Dorset, dated 1853. By 1900 there were 32,593 pillar boxes in the United Kingdom.

All boxes carry the royal insignia and on the accession of a new monarch the old boxes and insignia are retained (except Edward VIII's had their doors replaced with those bearing the cipher of George VI).

"The treasure house of a thousand secrets and the fortress of a thousand souls" (A.K.Chesterton)

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