What utility is this post for on my garden boundary?

[Nottseagull]

It's a concrete post sheathed in a metal cover bearing the letters "PO" (surely an old telephone installation would have the letters "GPO"?) It also has a triangular lock, like gas/electricity meter boxes. It's blocking access for an extended parking area on my open-plan front garden. Can it be moved?

 

[fatbadger]

Not sure about that one, I'm afraid. It's similar - but not identical - to one I have seen a couple of miles from here. If you find out, let me know!

You might want to see if your local library has any books on street furniture. The classics, such as Henry Aaron's books (eg his Shire Album and his 'Pillar to Post'), or Geoffrey Warren's 'Vanishing Street Furniture' might help. Similarly, English Heritage have a guide (called, I think, 'Hard Furnishings') as well. Unfortunately, they are all out of print at the moment.

 

[dougdeep]

Looks like some sort of earthing device.

 

[nevergoagain]

A Tellytubby gravestone?

 

[Trigger]

Ever thought of giving the weeds a trim?

 

[mindyjaja]

Could it be for marking a post code boundary?

 

[Mackenzie]

Its a post to mark an underground phone line I think. 99% sure I've got somthing similar on a bit of land we own, which I know was a phone line because I cut through it when we were widening a gateway. I'll check later to see what the markings are, but it looks identical.

 

[Gully]

Pre-positioned Ordnance...it's a bomb, get out!!!

 

[Northstander]

Its a House Brick!!

 

[Lush]

A Tellytubby gravestone?

 

[Billy the Fish]

It's a secret Post Office box placed there for British spys to use in case the germans invaded us in WW2

 

[Screaming J]

Its a post to mark an underground phone line I think. 99% sure I've got somthing similar on a bit of land we own, which I know was a phone line because I cut through it when we were widening a gateway. I'll check later to see what the markings are, but it looks identical.

I'd back that from memory of when there was one outside a house I used to live in in London. Its obviously from those long gone halcyon days before the Governemtn privatised the phone service from out of the Post Office.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Was it put there by the NCB to warn of pit tunnel subsidence in the area ?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Try your local council's planning and highways departments. They might know

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Its a headstone marking the grave of a postman who used to deliver that round.

If you dig just below the surface you should find his belt buckle and bag. If he had worked the round for over 10 years they sometimes buried him in the whole uniform of the time.

I think they were buried upright and eyes facing the nearest Post Office.

 

[Nottseagull]

A Tellytubby gravestone?

Brilliant, produced a guffaw here!

Ever thought of giving the weeds a trim?

The weeds are doomed anyway.

Could it be for marking a post code boundary?

No! I believe postcode boundaries are not marked at all in the field.


If it's any help, the estate it is on was built in the late 1970s (and still has an avocado suite to prove).

 

[Arthritic Toe]

A Tellytubby gravestone?

 

[NMH]

Its a headstone marking the grave of a postman who used to deliver that round.

If you dig just below the surface you should find his belt buckle and bag. If he had worked the round for over 10 years they sometimes buried him in the whole uniform of the time.

I think they were buried upright and eyes facing the nearest Post Office.

Up in Scotland they bury them just before Xmas to get out of having to tip