EHL221. VR (Queen Victoria) Type 'A' c1892-1900. Carlisle Road near the junction with Compton Street, and opposite the Heritage Centre, Eastbourne. what3words location: audit.factories.speech

Cast iron letter box with VR cypher.

Letter Box Study Group: Type A with weather strip manufactured by Handyside is designated PB14/ii.

The 1899 map shows this box was originally on the corner with Compton Street and was moved approx. 100 feet to its present location. 

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.