Dear Deputies and Guernsey Post,
Guernsey Post has announced plans to remove ninety-six of its one-hundred-and-forty-one post boxes. This is a very foolish idea. Please can I urge all Deputies to contact Guernsey Post to oppose this, before Guernsey Post’s deadline of Friday 12th September?
The first post boxes in the British Isles were manufactured and installed in Jersey (David Place, Cheapside, New Street, and St Clement’s Road); none of these have survived, and so the pillar box on Union Street, Guernsey is considered the oldest post box still in use in the British Isles.
Guernsey Post have recently opened a postal museum in their “new” branch in the Arcade.
Guernsey is (since 1980) famous for its blue post boxes; unique since the UK, Isle of Man, Jersey, and Gibraltar all have red post boxes. For this reason, many of the post boxes are tourist attractions.
In Gibraltar, the post boxes are tourist attractions and but they have embraced this; they have produced a leaflet showing tourists where to find the pillar boxes and a little of their history. They even have a rare Edward VIII pillar box.
Last year Guernsey post issued a first day cover celebrating its blue boxes:
Incidentally, Guernsey Post has been very quiet about Alderney’s boxes; are these being removed too? Sark only has one post box so that cannot be removed, but what of the one box in Herm?
I cannot reconcile how a country that played such an important part in creating post boxes, a country that has made a museum to commemorate the same, now wants to rip out all of that history and destroy it.
I feel this is analogous to the scrap metal campaign that ripped out the contents of the Island’s German bunkers after World War II.
A couple of months ago I emailed Guernsey Post and the St Pierre Park hotel to enquire about the pillar box at the hotel. I exchanged a number of emails with the hotel but I did not receive a single email from Guernsey Post about this, which suggests Guernsey Post is not interested in its heritage.
Guernsey Post claim that removing the post boxes would save money. Most of the post boxes on Guernsey are wall boxes. It would cost a fortune to remove the boxes and make good the walls. Guernsey Post need to state how much this work would cost.
There are a number of wall boxes in brick pillars, for example Fort Road, Les Sablons, Rue du Douit du Moulin, Route du Port Grat. Presumably Guernsey post is going to dismantle the whole pillar? How much will this cost?
During World War Two, the allies attempted to bomb the Freya radar at Fort George. If the radar were not disabled, it would have given the Germans warning of D-day movements. There are craters in the brick pillar of the Ford Road post box, which are the the results of hits from this air raid. For this reason, this pillar cannot be removed.
In England there is a tripartite agreement between Royal Mail, Historic England, and the UK government that all post boxes will be left in situ because they are considered “heritage assets”. Similar agreements exist between the equivalent sister organisations in Scotland and Wales.
There is also a legal obligation that there must be a post box within half a mile of 98% of the UK population. How far will Guernsey residents have to travel if Guernsey Post implement these changes?
Where a post box ceases operational use in the UK, the aperture is closed and it is “abandoned in place”. Jersey Post closed a small number of post boxes a few years ago but these too have been left in place. This avoids the expense of removing them and preserves these little pieces of history.
Imagine if Guernsey still had the Vaudin post box from Hauteville. People could visit the same post box that Victor Hugo used!
On a personal level, I visited the street in the Isle of Man where my great-grandmother lived. Her house is long gone, but the post box at the end of the road is still there. It was nice to have some connection to the past.
I am writing these from memory (you might say that I am a post box amateur historian):
Queen Victoria (post boxes from 1853 to 1901):
The post box in Trinity Square is the only Victorian Pillar box on the island. It needs to be preserved in situ because it is the only one that we have. Removing the stickers from it would be a good start.
Around the corner, Valnord Road has a Victorian wall box. During the Victorian era there was some experimentation of designs before a standard design was chosen. This box, I believe, is the only example of the same on the island. It is possible that there are very few of this design anywhere else in the British Isles. These boxes needed to be preserved in place due to their rarity.
Other designs of Victorian wall boxes can be found at:
Rue des Varendes, near Courtil Olivier, Rue des Monts, Rue du Putron, Havilland Road,
Rue de Moulin Huet, Le Varclin, Route du Camp du Roi, Mount Durand, Cambridge Park Summerfield Road, Les Mourants, and the Rue du Felconte.
Whilst this may seem a lot, there are different designs amongst them.
We must remember that Queen Victoria’s (Duchess of Normandy) reign ended in 1901; all of these boxes need to be preserved in situ because they are over 124 years old. Imagine the millions of letters posted in them; letters of joy, letters of sorrow; letters through two world wars.
Vauvert has a large Victorian wall box. This is the only one of this type on the island. I expect there are very few elsewhere in the British Isles. Removing such a large box will leave a very big hole to fill, which will be expensive.
There is a wooden Victorian postbox in the Vaudin and sons style at St Pierre Park hotel. The hotel believe that this was given to them, or possibly to the previous owners of the site, by Guernsey Post. It would appear that Guernsey Post could chose to stop collecting from it, but Guernsey Post cannot remove it, as it would seem to not belong to Guernsey Post.
I noticed another Vaudin replica whilst queuing at Envoy House, La Vrangue. I could see it through an upstairs window. Is this also a wooden replica? I did ask Guernsey Post about that too but again, I got no reply.
Edward VII (1901 to 1910).
Guernsey has few very Edward VII post boxes.
The post box on King’s Road is the only large Edwardian wall box on the island, as with Vauvert, I suspect there are very few large wall boxes anywhere else. It needs to be preserved.
From memory, I can only think of three other Edwardian boxes in Guernsey:
There is a wall box on La Rue de la Vrangue that has just the regnal initials “ER” on it. I believe this is the only box of its type in Guernsey. It is also my favourite post box on Guernsey.
The wall box at Les Merriennes has Edward’s ornate cypher, as does the one on Hautville. Due to the scarcity of Edwardian boxes on Guernsey, these must be preserved in situ.
During the first year of Edward’s reign, an open cypher was used; this was replaced with a closed cypher. The two boxes on Guernsey are the later, closed cypher.
George V (1910-1936).
I feel as though Guernsey has more George V boxes than any other monarch. That said, there are still variations between the wall boxes: the size of the “GR” varies (see photos). The boxes at Le Vallon and Baubigny simply have the regnal initials at the top of the box.
There are not many pillar boxes on Guernsey, which is why all pillar boxes should be preserved. The pillar box at The Bordage/Fountain Street (Creasy’s for kids) is the one of three George V pillar box on Guernsey, there is the pillar box outside the former Queens Road medical practice on The Grange, and the pillar box outside The Fountain Inn, which some would argue should be preserved due to being Guernsey’s only Olympic gold post box.
There was public uproar when the only gold box in the Isle of Man was repainted in red.
Rocquettes Road and Rouge Huis have the only two large George V wall boxes in Guernsey and as with the other large wall boxes, should be preserved due to their rarity. To remove them would be too expensive.
The significance of the Ford Road Georgian wall box as the only lasting evidence of the allied air raid has been discussed above.
Edward VIII (1936):
Due to his short reign, only one hundred and thirty post boxes survive; none of which are in the Channel Islands.
George VI (1936-1952):
There are several George VI wall boxes on the island, but no pillar boxes.
Elizabeth II (1952-2022):
Perhaps due to her having the longest reign, and perhaps because these are the youngest boxes and have had less time to be damaged or removed, there are many Elizabethan post boxes on Guernsey.
That said, we need to learn from the mistakes of the telephone kiosks: all of the remaining K2 telephone kiosks in the UK were made listed buildings. Many K6 telephone kiosks were also listed. No-one thought to list the K8 kiosk, that was installed from 1968 onwards; this was considered “too young” to be historic. Over eleven thousand were installed but due to not being protected by listing, only fifty remain in their original position.
We need to ensure we do not remove the George VI and Elizabeth II post boxes because of their ubiquity and then subsequently lose them all.
(In an act of similar historic desecration, Sure recently removed Guernsey’s last two K6 kiosks).
The cylindrical K-type post box was installed between 1980 and 2001. Curiously the K-type pillar box at Cobo is unique and has no cypher: was this a Scottish post box that had its crown ground off?
(Scottish post boxes do not have the “E II R” cypher because Scotland has only ever had one Queen Elizabeth; to appease the Scots, Scottish pillar boxes have a Scottish crown on. The Scottish have not noticed that they have not had eight King Edwards; please do not tell them, we do not want to cause more upset).
There are two styles of the iconic cylindrical post box: type A and type B. If you want to know which type A box is, look around and make sure no-one is watching, and then hug the pillar box. If your hands touch, it is a type B; it not, it is type A. From memory, I would say the one at the airport, the one at Perelle, and the one at Coop St Martin are type A; those at Richmond Avenue, Jerbourg Hotel, the ferry terminal, and Les Vardes are type B.
At the bottom of Mill Street there is Guernsey’s only large E II R wall box. Located in the wall nearby is Guernsey’s only surviving stamp machine. These need preserving due to their uniqueness.
There are only two lamp boxes on Guernsey: Rue Sauvage and Route de Farras (possibly a third at Le Mont Saint?) These are becoming scarce in the UK because they are being stolen. We need to preserve the two that we have.
I could go on but I think I have made the point that these boxes are historic and unusual and need to be preserved.
Guernsey Post say they collect five items of post per day from some of the post boxes.
This is 5 x 365 = 1,825 items of post each year. Why are we talking about removing boxes that collect over one thousand items each year? These are large numbers.
Guernsey Post claims that it costs money to visit the boxes. How will money be saved by closing the boxes? The postmen will still be in the vicinity of these boxes delivering letters to businesses and residents. If the postmen empty the box whilst they are in the area delivering, there is no net cost to the business.
One report said that the post box at Les Camps du Moulin, St Martin, will be relocated to the doctor’s surgery. Why? This is completely unnecessary.
Guernsey Post say they will keep post boxes near shops, and yet a number of post boxes at shops are on the closure list, bizarrely, the post box outside the Coop on the bridge is on the list and that supermarket contains a post office! It is much easier to park at the Coop to post a letter than it is to park around the corner by Stoners’ pharmacy [sic]. The post box at Longstore is another example of a supermarket box at risk of closure.
Guernsey Post needs to remember that people use the postal service because of convenience; if that convenience is lost, people will not use the postal service. If I want to send a “get well soon” card, or to send congratulations or condolences, I need to be able to post it today. I am not going to drive halfway across the island to Waitrose to post a letter; I am going to send a text or an email instead. Yes, people visit supermarkets but we do not visit them daily.
Royal Mail have made similar mistakes in the UK, destroying their business in the process of trying to save money: Royal Mail changed collection times from the evening to the morning. A letter posted on Monday is now collected on Tuesday and is delivered Wednesday, and they wonder why no-one is using the post when a fax or email gets there the same day and a letter takes three days.
It is ironic that Guernsey Post want to keep the tacky, sheet metal Romec boxes as found at Beau Sejour and Waitrose Admiral Park, that are devoid of character, whilst removing all the historic ones.
Guernsey Post seem to have forgotten the lessons of covid, and want us to go to busy areas to post letters. Where will we post letters during the next lockdown if all the local boxes have gone?
How will people get to the few remaining post boxes if they lack a car? People will not catch a bus, they will send a text.
Why is there no post box at the bus station, which would be the obvious place for one?
The Guernsey Post consultation reminds me of the episode of “Yes, Prime Minister”, where Sir Humphrey manipulates the wording of the referendum to get the result the government wanted all along. People can only comment about one post box at a time, very few people are going to visit the site ninety-six times.
I am happy to discuss these points further.
Yours Faithfully,
Stephen Orme