'Ghost' Postbox

[James Robinson]

Hi! I'm interested in unusual and obscure postboxes. I found one at the end of a dead end rural lane with a farm at the end here.

However it's not on the Royal Mail map.

Dracos uses older maps and it's not uncommon for me to find a postbox on it, that has been stopped up or removed, and is not on the RM map. (By the way RM tried to stop Dracos from releasing a public map of postboxes.)

Sometimes postboxes are in slightly the wrong place on either map but I've never seen an error of more than 20-30 yards before, ie one that would put the box on the main road at the junction with the lane, although even that wouldn't seem a likely place for it. Do you think this is a mistake? Why would a postbox be at the end of a rural lane dead end with only one farm at the end? I don't think there used to be an outward bounds centre or anything there. I wrote to the farmer and got no answer. I wrote to RM and they responded without answering. It is plausible that there used to be a postbox there? Thanks.

[fb1969]

This is also an interest of mine.

Did you get a note of the box number? Was it an active box, or possibly one the farm uses for their incoming post. Your dracos link shows box TS13 499 and the RM list from 2008 that I have has this box named the same location as dracos does, though it is possible they share the same data.

Cross referencing the location on the National Library of Scotland maps database, the 1892-1914 25" map shows a 'P' at the location - maps of that age used "P" to mean a Post Office (amongst other meanings). Looking on the same map, there is a "LB" for letter box in Liverton village itself (where the current box is), but I can't see a PO or Post Office. So I would guess the box you saw may be a legacy of the PO being there.

NLS map - https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=1 ... &b=1&o=100

[James Robinson]

This is also an interest of mine.

Did you get a note of the box number? Was it an active box, or possibly one the farm uses for their incoming post. Your dracos link shows box TS13 499 and the RM list from 2008 that I have has this box named the same location as dracos does, though it is possible they share the same data.

Cross referencing the location on the National Library of Scotland maps database, the 1892-1914 25" map shows a 'P' at the location - maps of that age used "P" to mean a Post Office (amongst other meanings). Looking on the same map, there is a "LB" for letter box in Liverton village itself (where the current box is), but I can't see a PO or Post Office. So I would guess the box you saw may be a legacy of the PO being there.

NLS map - https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=1 ... &b=1&o=100

Sorry that was ambiguous - I found it on the map. You can't see the box on Google Maps satellite images and that road isn't on Street View. I could go and check, but I think it's pretty likely that it was there and isn't now. Sometimes postboxes are stopped up, painted black and left in place but I think that's more when they're embedded in walls, I doubt that happened here.

Thanks for this useful answer - I didn't think of looking at old maps. Still, if it seems an odd place for a postbox, it's an even odder place for a post office. Why would a post office be put out of the way like that? I'll try asking museums in the area, and anyone else I can think of.