Liverpool is the only major city in the UK...

[POSTMAN]

to win a prestigious award... for a postbox.

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http://i2.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/article7896075.ece/alternates/s615/post-box-december.jpgThe post box will feature in the 2015 calendar 'Post Boxes' of Britain’

The Beatles, the football teams, the beautiful architecture - there are many reasons to be proud of Liverpool.

And now there’s one more.

The city has just won the honorable, if somewhat unusual, accolade of ‘Best British Postbox’.

Retired postman and postbox enthusiast Peter Willis, who himself once graced the June page of a ‘Dull Men of Great Britain’ calendar, travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles in his quest to find the ultimate post box.


http://i1.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/article7896055.ece/alternates/s615b/post-box-2015-FRONT-COVER.jpgThe 'Liverpool Special' post box has been named Britain's best

His winning choice was a unique beauty known as a ‘Liverpool Special’. The ‘scarlet icon’ Box Number L3 13, is located in the Albert Dock’s Salthouse Quay where it’s still in service.

Just seven of its kind were made and only three survive. Another, now out of service, is in the Royal Mail Delivery Office in Liverpool, while the third is at the British Postal Museum Archive (BPMA) at Debden, Essex, having thought to have started its postal life at Sheil Road, in Liverpool.

The winning box will grace the front cover and the December page of the 2015 calendar ‘Post Boxes of Britain’.

8 things you might not know about post boxes

1) Post boxes were originally painted green to blend in with the landscape.

2) They were re-painted red in 1874 so they were more visible.

3) There are around 115,000 in the UK.

4) 110 are now painted gold in the hometowns of the Olympic and Paralympic athletes who won gold at the 2012 games.

5) Red is the most popular colour for post boxes around the world, with yellow the second most popular. Gray is the least so, with just the Philippines choosing the colour for their post boxes.

6) When posting mail began in the 1630s, the recipient had to pay for the delivery.

7 A post box dated 1809 and installed in the wall of Wakefield Post Office is believed to be the oldest in Britain and can now been seen at the Wakefield Museum.

8) Between 1952 and 1980, more than 20,000 ‘wall post boxes’ were installed across Britain.

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