A lot of the street furniture in Sea Mills dates back to the origins of the estate. It turns out some of it is pretty unusual too. Most pilar boxes have the initials of the reigning monarch on them which also helps to date them. Indeed most of the pillar boxes on the estate, like this one on the corner of East Parade include George V’s initials 1910 – 1936.
As the estate started to be built in 1919 this is what you would expect.
However the pillar box on the Pentagon has no initials and was made by a company in Scotland. What is the story behind this one?
According to wikivisually.com this is a 1950’s pillar box made for use in Scotland.
“In Scotland there were protests when the first boxes made in the reign of Elizabeth II were produced. These bore the cypher “E II R” but there were objections because Queen Elizabeth is the first Queen of Scotland and of the United Kingdom to bear that name, Elizabeth I having been Queen of England only. After several E II R pillar boxes were blown up by improvised explosive devices, the General Post Office (as it was at that time) replaced them with ones which only bore the Crown of Scotland and no royal cypher.”
How did this post box, which also features the crown of Scotland come to be on a corner in Sea Mills?
UPDATE: A couple of long standing local residents remember the post box being vandalised about twenty years ago and replaced. This seems a likely explanation for why it’s different to the others on the estate. Perhaps Royal Mail just had this Scottish one spare to re-use?