Cochrane and Co: Pillar Boxes

Exhibit at Crich Tramway Museum.

Pillar Box. Exhibit at the Black Country Living Museum.

Pillar box and lamp post combined at Toad Lane, Rochdale.

Pillar box and lamp post combined (detail) at Toad Lane, Rochdale.

1862 Cochrane and Co (Woodside Works, Dudley) pillar box at Bristol's 'M Shed'

1863. Pillar Box. Exhibit at Glasgow Museum of Transport.

1863. Pillar Box. (Detail)Exhibit at Glasgow Museum of Transport.

VR Pillarbox. Exhibit at the Black Country Living Museum.

VR pillarbox in Cheltenham made by Cochrane, Grove and Co.

1859 Cochrane, Grove and Co was awarded a contract for Penfold Pillar Boxes. (These were specials for use in Liverpool, where boxes were required that had extra capacity and security).

1866 John Worham Penfold, an architect and surveyor, designed the first standardised pillar box. It had a distinctive hexagonal structure, topped by acanthus leaves and with a string of balls around the rim. Several different versions were introduced in response to feedback, including complaints that letters were stuck in the top, and postmen reported letters stuck in the inner wire basket. The boxes were made of cast iron by Cochrane and Co at the Woodside Works. The Penfold box has been listed Grade II by English Heritage. Eight examples are still to be found in the streets of Cheltenham alone, some of which were made by Cochrane, Grove and Co.

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