Well, would you believe it! I only happened to notice this VR (Victorian) postbox a couple of weeks ago and was about to post it on my blog - intending to ask my local readers if they knew where it was... Despite Saltaire's Victorian origins, none of the postboxes in the village, to my knowledge, are Victorian so I was delighted to see this example not far away.
I passed it again yesterday and was shocked to find it has been ruined. I am not sure what happened. There are no marks on the wall, and nothing to suggest a car collided with it. Methinks the most likely explanation is metal thieves, who seemingly will pinch anything they can see. Completely mindless, they seem to have no respect for other people's property, or for history, or for the consequences of their actions. It does make me angry!
So that's another little piece of local history that has disappeared. For the uninitiated, it is in the wall at the top of Belmont Terrace in Shipley, quite close to St Paul's Church... Well, it was!
Very sad.
ReplyDeleteOh No that is so sad
ReplyDeleteThat makes me very angry too!I guess they wanted to take the door away, and finally broke the whole box.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing it is/was the box at the mouth of Belmont Terrace, just off Kirkgate, Shipley, (above the road from St. Paul's Church).
ReplyDeleteI get mad too when I see this sort of damage done, whether the object is old or new and notwithstanding whether I like it or not
If you look carefully at the left hnad photo you can see that the frame was already cracked. So it is just possible it was an accident. Somehow I think metal thieves would have taken more (because cast iron breaks really easily).
ReplyDeleteVandals wouldn't care, of course.
I doubt if the post office will replace it with an old one (there are still some to be found in store). It's just a shame.
No doubt they took the post as well, mindless and selfish.
ReplyDeletefollowing on from Mornin AJ:
ReplyDeleteIt is possible I suppose, I hadn't particularly noticed that crack.
It could be old age and weather damage;
the box faces (pretty much) the rising sun and though the main direction for rain is from "behind" it there have been some pretty cold nights of late which might have led to any water in that crack freezing and expanding.
I did notice that, though there is a small collection of elastic bands (post office issue) and what may be some sweet wrappers, there doesn't appear to be any shards from the box inside.
Maybe the door broke away as the postie opened it ...?? ... hope it missed his foot :)
Good gracious, you would not think it would be worth the effort for that amount of metal. Now those big iron free-standing postboxes are another thing, not to mention those old telephone boxes. Sorry, can't stay to talk, must rush off, I have just thought of a way to add a little to my pension.
ReplyDeleteOr simply vandalism? That's a major problem in our area. Things left unattended will eventually get burned, broken, stolen, or spray painted with graffiti.
ReplyDeleteThere are mindless people everywhere. Where we are the postboxes are freestanding, and every Friday night, the sport was to tip them over! We have copper thieves too....
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got a photo of it before it was destroyed.
ReplyDeleteLooks the sort of thing my mother might have done when she heard that the price of stamps was going up!
ReplyDeleteThere is an unlimited supply of dumb and mean people around.
ReplyDeleteoh, isn't that terrible!
ReplyDeleteI love the first photo...I wonder how many coats of paint were on that box!
I used to walk past that post box on my way to St Walburga's Primary School in Farfield Road, Saltaire during the fifties.
ReplyDelete