Rare first-class finds tick all the right boxes
Postal enthusiast David visits Forgandenny and Perth
A fan of post boxes made a 300mile round trip to Perthshire in search of some of the rarest to be found in the UK - including one which may be entirely unique.
David Chandler, who enjoys tracking down the increasingly scarce boxes as part of a quirky interest shared by many around the country, travelled from England to Forgandenny and Perth.
At Forgandenny this week he confirmed the existence of one of just a handful of Edward VIII post boxes left in the UK.
Designed and made by Ludlow of Birmingham, the boxes are rare because of their style - but also because of the short-lived reign of the monarch who later abdicated.
But Morecambe resident David’s interest was furthered on a trip to Dundee Road in Perth where he found another pillar box of the era - one which he thinks has been hastily altered during manufacturing an attempt to make it contemporary to the following monarch, George VI.
A video of David’s travels, including a fruitless journey to Cumbria, have been posted on YouTube, but his success in the Big County was a “special one” he said.
David explained to the PA: “I have been interested in postboxes for some time and used to photograph the odd one that I’d see on my travels. Then I realised a couple of years ago that I had accumulated quite a few of these pictures, so I decided to setup a Facebook page to display them. I also
David Chandler and Jim Johnston, postmaster of Forgandenny invited others to send in their own photos.”
The social media page, www.facebook. com/postboxcollection now has more than 1000 pictures of boxes from all over the UK and some from further afield, such as Gibraltar. The aim is to record all 115,000 of them with support of ‘spotters’.
“I enjoy travelling around the UK looking for boxes. They don’t even need to be particularly special examples.
“The hobby takes me to places that I wouldn’t otherwise visit and I always meet interested people - someone will always ask me at some point why I am photographing a post box!
“The trip to Forgandenny was a special one, as I particularly wanted to see an Edward VIII Ludlow box and had recently been to Armathwaite in Cumbria, only to discover the box there had gone with the closure of the sub post office.
“I made it my New Year’s resolution to visit one of these boxes and chose Forgandenny as it was possible to travel there and back from my home in Morecambe in one day.
“Jim Johnston, the Postmaster, was very helpful, as I rang him to check the box was there and he emailed me photos, so I could verify it before setting off on the six-hour rail and bus journey.”
“With the closure of so many Post Office branches around the UK, I worry that lots of our historic postboxes will disappear. Something that is part of our history and is a beautiful piece of design, is being replaced by a tin box.”
• See the video at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=iplfkCmRn4A&feature=youtu.be