Oxford post boxes: Victorian
Oxford has thirteen surviving Victorian post boxes. The oldest is the pillar box in Park Town, which dates from between 1866 and 1868.
All are embossed with the entwined letters “VR” except for the two so-called “anonymous” boxes.
Oxford’s five Victorian pillar boxes
(+ one removed in 2021)
Oxford’s eight Victorian wall boxes
Webster’s Oxford Directory for 1869 is the first directory that lists Oxford letter boxes. There were then four Receiving Offices (R.O.) and just eight letter boxes:
Time of collection from Receiving Offices, |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Clement’s R.O.; Marston Street; High Street; Holywell St R.O.; Magdalen Street; and Littlegate Street— |
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Week Days |
10.00am |
2.40pm |
6.00pm |
7.35pm |
9.30pm |
Sundays |
10.00am |
2.20pm |
7.35pm |
9.30pm |
|
Park Crescent ; Woodstock Road; St Giles Road R.O.; Walton Street; High Street St Thomas R.O.; and Osney— |
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Week Days |
9.30am |
2.20pm |
5.30pm |
7.15pm |
9.00pm |
Sundays |
9.30am |
2.00pm |
7.15pm |
9.00pm |
|
Town letters can be posted at the Chief Office at the Town Hall, until 6.30am, 12noon, and 5.30pm |
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In 1883 it was agreed that indicators to show when letter boxes were cleared were to be placed on every pillar box in England.
The first Kelly’s Directory for Oxford was published in 1889–90, and lists 23 letter boxes in the city (not including nearby villages such as Headington and Cowley, which only had receiving offices),
Here is a list of the 1889 Oxford letter boxes (with no differentiation between pillar and wall boxes. Each box was emptied about a dozen times a day between 4.30am and 10.00pm. The five in bold still exist:
Banbury Road Broad Street Bullingdon Road Fyfield Road Holywell Street Iffley Road |
King Edward Street Kingston Road Littlegate Street Magdalen Road Magdalen Street Norham Gardens |
Osney Paradise Street Park Crescent St Aldate’s Street St Margaret’s Road South Parks Road |
St Clement’s (at the Plain) Turl Street (an 1886 box, later replaced by a Woodstock Road Worcester Street GWR station |
By 1899 there were an additional nine letter boxes, namley at Chalfont Road, Cripley Road, Farndon Road, Magdalen Road East, the Market, Merton Street, Newton Road, Queen Street, and Rawlinson Road,
By 1899, villages were starting to get letter boxes:
- Cowley: Wall letter boxes outside the Military College and the Military Barracks, and at Temple Road and Rose Hill.
- Iffley: Wall letter box at Rose Hill (probably the same one that is listed under Cowley)
- Wolvercote: Wall letter boxes at Upper Wolvercote and Cutteslowe
Headington, Littlemore, and Marston, however, had no letter boxes until the twentieth century.