EHL176. ERVII (Edward the Seventh) Type 'B' c1904-1910. Susans Road near the junction with Firle Road, Eastbourne. what3words location: crowned.splash.yappy

Letter Box Study Group: Type B manufactured by McDowall Steven is designated PB20.

Strangely, the pillar box is set at an odd angle to the road, which makes it an outlier in Eastbourne at least. Other boxes set at slight angles are those that are positioned at the junctions of roads, which makes sense, but this box is not on a corner or at a junction, so it is difficult to understand why it was positioned like this.

Historic England: -

The roadside post box was introduced in Britain following the 1840 postal reform which provided for universal affordable postage. New adhesive stamps made pre-payment of postage easy. However, letters usually had to be taken to the nearest letter receiving office which could be miles away. This, together with the growth in demand for postal services linked to industrialisation and urbanisation, led to the need for many more convenient places where stamped letters could be deposited. The novelist Anthony Trollope, a General Post Office (GPO) official sent to Jersey to make recommendations, provided a solution. He adopted a system used on the Continent of placing locked cast-iron pillar boxes at the roadside and the provision of regular collection times. His scheme began in the Channel Islands in 1852 and was extended to the mainland in 1853.