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Wigan Album

Wallgate

17 Comments

DOUBLE POST BOX
DOUBLE POST BOX
Photo: RON HUNT
Views: 1,707
Item #: 33863
The double post box that stood outside of the Post Office in Wallgate.

Comment by: PeterP on 26th June 2022 at 14:19

I bet with the price of postage now two post boxes are not now required. I posted a letter last week 95pence for a stamp.

Comment by: Cyril on 26th June 2022 at 14:20

There was was also two other double post boxes one on the corner of Bridgeman Terrace and Wrightington Street and the other opposite the Royal Oak on Standishgate, and they did have separate posting slots for first and second class mail, though whenever I saw the posties emptying them the mail from both compartments was put into the same sack, though maybe at one time the first class mail from these boxes did get to be emptied more often throughout the day.

Comment by: Veronica on 26th June 2022 at 14:27

Wonder (not wander) what will happen with that lovely red round post box now. It’s not as if it could be bought as a garden ornament…. You’d have every Tom,Dick, Ethel and Sally trampling over the cabbage patch to post a letter that won’t go anywhere. I hope it’s not broken up, surely some use could be found for it. Any guesses? Thought not!

Comment by: John Brown on 26th June 2022 at 15:46

I don't remember this.

Comment by: CJAlan on 26th June 2022 at 16:10

Ron

Is that double box no longer there? I haven't really noticed when I've been down Wallgate, although that part of town (as is the rest of the town centre) is looking run down and pitifull these days.

CJ

Comment by: Gareth Cheetham on 27th June 2022 at 09:56

95p for a stamp is a bargain. I can't believe how many of moan about the cost of postage.

Comment by: irene roberts on 27th June 2022 at 11:29

I have to agree with Gareth....if I had to walk, say, from Abram to Standish with a letter, or spend on petrol to take a letter there, or even go on the bus to take a letter there, (if I still had to pay bus-fare), I would willingly stump up for a stamp. And Standish is a local address....what about letters sent to London? My daughter lives in the Outer Hebrides and receives letters from me . posted in Wigan, within two days. The only time it gets really expensive is at Christmas time when you have to buy a lot of stamps all at once.

Comment by: whups on 27th June 2022 at 11:50

to get back to the blog , we have a double post box in bryn st in ashton.

Comment by: Gareth Cheetham on 27th June 2022 at 12:00

Irene,you are spot on...
If I asked someone to take a letter from me, deliver it to a specific door in a specific building 250 miles away within a day or two, and offered that person one pound to do it, they would think that I was crackers and tell me where to shove my envelope.
The fact that the Post Office do it for 95p is amazing

Comment by: Veronica on 27th June 2022 at 16:04

The problem for me buying stamps is not the price but the queuing up to buy one. (I know there are books of stamps…which seem expensive when you don’t post many letters) At one time you could buy stamps from machines, now you have to wait your turn behind people sending ‘returns’ back through the post that were ordered online. I queued up the other day and when I got to the counter was told
“ Sorry I go for my lunch now”. I said I only want one stamp! He said “Ok leave it I attend to it afterwards…!.”
You could still get stamps through the serve yourself machines in the main post offices, which nonetheless, to me were a pain to use , you still had to queue for the folk with their parcels…
Nevertheless, I still feel Royal Mail deliver much quicker than say Hermes or other private companies.

Comment by: Mary. on 27th June 2022 at 19:49

This double aperture box replaced a large brass fronted box situated under the window of 28 Wallgate.A ramp was put in to allow access for wheelchairs,and the red box was sited on the pavement.I do not know the date this was done,but I was working there at the time.Mary.

Comment by: gibo. on 28th June 2022 at 20:02

The double box is still there in wallgate.I past it on Sunday on the way to the pub

Comment by: Chris Cheetham on 29th June 2022 at 08:39

I've lived all over the Country and in many cities I've lived,there are Stamp 'vending' machines ? I'm sure there used to be such a machine on the wall at the entrance to the Old Market Hall ??

Comment by: Gareth Cheetham on 29th June 2022 at 10:34

Sadly Chris, just one of many benefits that were lost when they closed that magnificent building. I bet they won't have stamp machines in the new glass and steel monstrosity...

Comment by: Dave johnson on 29th June 2022 at 11:01

There was a vending machine outside the general.

Comment by: George (Hindley) on 29th June 2022 at 21:43

Gareth Cheetham, the Post Office don't do it for 95p. The Royal Mail do.

Comment by: Gareth Cheetham on 30th June 2022 at 13:48

George, Thank you for correcting me there. I think
I was thinking in terms of the old GPO, which encompassed everything. Another edifice from the past that many people miss - much like the old Market Hall mentioned above.

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