Edwardian postage stamp
My mother's written recollections of
life in her childhood in the early 1900s described the postmen
and telegraph boys of the period, but did not mention the post office
or posting letters. I
have tried to discover what Edwardian post offices and post boxes were like from museums, old books and
pictures. This page illustrates what I have discovered so far. If you can add
anything or correct a misunderstanding, do please let me know.
In the early 1900s, which were Edwardian times, the post offices and post
boxes would have been much as they were in Victorian times. I have
certainly found Edwardian stamps, but not yet an Edwardian post box.
The Victorian/Edwardian Post Office
Life-size reproduction Edwardian Post Office in Milestones Museum,
Basingstoke.
Inside a late Victorian or Edwardian Post Office - a
picture from an old book in my mother's effects.
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Model of a post boy collecting a parcel for
delivery - photographed in Milton Keynes Museum. (The accuracy of
museums' mock-ups cannot be guaranteed, as I have noticed serious errors
in mock-ups elsewhere - hence my preference for photographs from the
actual period.)
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Victorian post boxes still in use in Edwardian times
There were post boxes on street corners and in other convenient places, so that people did not have to go to the Post Office.
 A Victorian or Edwardian pillar box / post box -
photographed in Fagans Museum of Welsh Life.
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The decorative scroll half-way up the letter box, actually the
initials VR entwined, standing for Victoria Regina. 'Regina' is the
official title for a Queen.
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 Posting a letter in the 1890s - which would have been similar to
in the early 1900s. From a magazine in Bath Postal Museum.
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Posting a letter in a Victorian or Edwardian post box
- detail from a picture in Fagans Museum of Welsh Life.
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I
Victorian post box of the type let
into a wall. Note the embossed VR at the top, standing for
Victoria Regina. Photographed in Nidderdale Museum.
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Interestingly not all Victorian post boxes were red. These photographed in Bath Postal Museum were green.
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If you can add anything to this page or provide a photo, I would be
pleased to hear from you.
Pat Cryer, webmaster
This website Join me in the 1900s is a contribution to the social history of everyday life in early to mid 20th century Britain, seen through personal recollections and illustrations, with the emphasis on what it was like to live in those times. It is © Pat Cryer.
