Summary
Wall Letter Box. Designed in 1857 by Smith and Hawkes of Birmingham. The boundary wall in which the wall letter box is inserted is of lesser interest.
Reasons for Designation
The wall letter box to the boundary wall of 1 and 2 Post Office Cottages is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
History
The postal reforms of Sir Rowland Hill in 1837 and the introduction of the penny post in 1840 led to an increased demand for post offices nationally and, in the 1850s, Post Office Surveyors began visiting villages and hamlets to review the postal arrangements, recommending where post offices, and subsequently post boxes, were needed. The earliest post boxes in the British Isles were of the pillar-box type and were first erected in the Channel Islands in 1852 at the suggestion of the novelist Anthony Trollope, who was a Post Office Surveyor. It became rapidly apparent that smaller letter boxes were needed in villages and other rural locations and specimen wall boxes were made for the surveyor of the Western District of England in 1857 and authorisation was given to site them in villages near Plymouth. None of these earliest wall boxes survive. At the same time a cast-iron wall letter box was being made by Smith and Hawkes for the Birmingham District, and after some improvements were commissioned. The first tranche of 1857 included an inward-opening flap over the horizontal posting aperture but following reports of rain getting inside, a modification of an additional casting in the form of a small pediment and hood over the aperture was introduced. This is believed to have been applied to about 100 of the first standard wall letter boxes. It was not added to the example at Tortworth.
Details
Wall Letter Box. Designed in 1857 by Smith and Hawkes of Birmingham. The boundary wall in which the wall letter box is inserted is of lesser interest.
Sources
Other
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
The listed building is shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building but not coloured blue on the map, are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act. However, any works to these structures which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent (LBC) and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to determine.
End of official list entry
