Twenty of my favourite postboxes

Twitter/X doesn’t have a good reputation - it is increasingly known for anger, extremism and misinformation - but somehow there remain small, whimsical corners of silliness there, which is where I tend to lurk. One of these is the hashtag #PostboxSaturday, where people post pictures of postboxes every Saturday to promote the Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society.

There’s not much more to it than that, though when I started joining in a few years ago, keeping an eye out for new postboxes when walking, I decided to start telling their stories along with the pictures: tales of the surreal and the silly from Postboxdom. It can be a challenge coming up with something new, surprising and unexpected each week that makes a kind of sense: finding emotion and character in metal boxes, their games, foibles, histories, traditions and hopes. But people seem to enjoy these vignettes.

So here, for those who wisely avoid ever venturing onto Twitter (and in case the whole thing falls over and they’re otherwise lost), are twenty of my favourites.

1.1.2022: This postbox was adopted when very young by a family of windows, and now it evidently thinks it’s a window, tries to do everything that a window does, and would be deeply upset if anyone suggested it wasn’t a window. Quite a sweet story. #PostboxSaturday #HappyNewYear (Easton on the Hill, Northamptonshire)

12.2.2022: The Roadwork-Barriers (who were uncommonly proud of their double-barrelled surname) were famed for raucous parties, and this postbox was flattered to be invited. Towards the end of the evening, everyone was a bit the worse for wear and enjoying a conga. #PostboxSaturday (Market Harborough, Leicestershire)

19.3.2022: A still from one of the postbox world’s most notorious horror films: a cheerful lamp-box sits jauntily in the sun awaiting its next collection, unaware of the terrifying tree standing ready to pounce behind it. What happens next is not suitable for #PostboxSaturday (Muston, Leicestershire)

23.4.2022: Some postboxes wear knitted hats, but this competitive fellow carries an entire church. In fact the ancient sport of church-balancing long predates postboxes: references can be found in the C12th, but only the odd postbox keeps up the tradition now. #PostboxSaturday (Weston by Welland, Northamptonshire)

28.5.2022: The rules of Shadow-Stick-Jump are arcane, and it’s little played now, so a rare action shot: a phonebox in quarter seven, balancing a stick, having rolled a double-one, making a late bid for victory by trying to jump the postbox’s shadow to avoid starting over.  #PostboxSaturday (Marston Trussell, Northamptonshire)

16.7.2022: This smart French postbox, proud of its own bit of pavement and its grey pediment, has two slots, not just for types of mail: if it’s called into action as a rescue postbox, one slot is used to look through and the other issues climbing rope, bandages and cups of tea. #PostboxSaturday (Avenue Berthelot, Lyon, France)

17.9.2022: A sad EiiR postbox shows off its skills in the ancient sport of church-balancing. When postboxes exert themselves they sometimes emit green letter-smoke, for reasons that are lost in the mist-posts of time, and you can clearly see the effort that is involved here. #PostboxSaturday (Wymeswold, Leicestershire)

5.11.2022: It was quiet, too quiet. The old, grizzled postbox-detective stood on the edge of the street, one eyebrow raised: watching everything, missing nothing, unsurprisable. A cab hurried past nervously. Leaves waited leafily. Something dramatic was about to be posted… #PostboxSaturday (Southamton Row, London)

26.11.2022: It’s not an optical illusion: this postbox really is levitating in front of the brick wall (you can tell from the ledge beneath), a trick only VR wallboxes have ever mastered. But when a human posts a letter, they never notice that things aren’t what they seem… #PostboxSaturday (Kimcote, Leicestershire)

31.12.2022: There’s something inherently funny about living peeping out of a hedge, so no surprise to find it’s Billy Conletterly, Postworld’s favourite comic. While I’m there it quips, ‘I’d tell you the joke about the parcel with a hedge in it, but I can’t - it’s privet…’ #PostboxSaturday (Moira, Leicestershire)

11.2.2023: ‘Big Wen’ enjoys entertaining starstruck young pillarboxes - some of which were mere lampboxes back in 2012 - with tales of Olympic medals (the number seems to increase on every telling) and what a key role a secret team of postboxes played in Team GB’s success… #PostboxSaturday (Tothill Street, London)

18.2.2023: The end of a classic postbox movie, Shakespearean in its tragic intensity: as the reflected sun sets on hope, the hero is left on the verge, pondering what might have been and what will never be, as realisation dawns that those undelivered letters are lost forever. #PostboxSaturday (Hinckley, Leicestershire)

17.6.2023: When the school sports captains are picking players in turn, and they’re down to the last three and you’re one of them, and you look at the other two and realise one’s a litterbin and the other can only hop, and you have a horrible feeling you’re still not going to be picked next. #PostboxSaturday (Market Harborough)

22.7.2023: Some Swiss postboxes are real characters. These triplets look well behaved, but at night they sometimes go and look in chocolate shop windows, forlornly wishing more people would post chocolate they could eat. Then they jump back on the wall in the wrong order…! #PostboxSaturday (Bern Railway Station, Switzerland)

9.9.2023: When it was a baby, this postbox liked to play ‘peek-a-boo’ with the signpost shadow, giggling manically, endless fun. The postbox is old now, but signposts and their shadows are notoriously set in their ways, and they still want to play. The postbox sighs wearily. #PostboxSaturday (Castle Donington, Leicestershire)

21.10.2023: There’s an ancient tradition of postboxes doubling up as sentries guarding churches. Nowadays the role, for the few examples that remain, is mostly ceremonial; but in the past, churches relied heavily on their postboxes: ‘Letters Pray’, as the old saying went… #PostboxSaturday (Cold Overton, Leicestershire)

25.11.2023: This little postbox was found abandoned as a baby in the wild, and has since been adopted by this kindly telegraph pole, to which it clings lovingly. The postbox is happy and settled now, and learning to take letters, but as you can see it is still terrified of leaves. #PostboxSaturday (Saxby, Leicestershire)

13.1.2024: Three generations of a venerable Bostonian postbox family stand together. The youngster may look like a rebel - its fancy shiny blue is quite unlike the grizzled grey of its elders - but it knows it has much to learn if it is to continue the family business. #PostboxSaturday 🇺🇸 (Post Office Square, Boston)¹

27.1.2024: ‘Postbox stood rooted to the ground, looking wistfully at a street that was so familiar, yet after what had happened seemed strange and intense. If it had had a head it would have shaken it slowly. But it had to move on and get back to work: the post wouldn’t wait…’ #PostboxSaturday (Russell Square, London)

2.3.2024: In Postboxdom there is a saying: ‘Judge me not by the height of my hat but by the length of my shadow’. No one actually knows what it means, but it sounds profound and is said sagely by wise VRs. So postboxes always get excited by longshadow moments like this... #PostboxSaturday (Carlton House Terrace, London)

Happy Church-balancing!

1. Before any pedants respond, I have since realised that the grey boxes are for storing not posting mail, but I don’t care.