The oldest working pillar box in UK can be found at Barnes Cross, near Sherborne in Dorset. The octagonal box was manufactured by John M Butt & Company of Gloucester in 1853, just a year after roadside pillar boxes were first introduced. It has a vertical letter aperture which officials originally thought would be prove harder to steal from. Around the country, the oldest working pillar box in Wales is on Picton Road in Neyland near Milford Haven. In Scotland, it is a wall box on the front of the Golspie Inn - formerly Sutherland Arms Hotel dating back to 1861 and in Northern Ireland it is on English Street in Downpatrick.
1800s John Penfold (1828-1909)
1800s The introduction of the Christmas card
1900s ‘Outposts of Empire. Southern Rhodesia’ by John Vickery (1938)
1900s Landscapes - first use of cameo head of Queen (1966)
1800s In 1881 Royal Mail first encouraged the public to ‘Post Early’
1800s Copying the Channel Islands box 1851