Posting Box Built Into Front Wall of Number 1 Ivy Cottages (Post Office) is a Grade II listed building in the North Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 October 1988. A Victorian Post box.
Posting Box Built Into Front Wall of Number 1 Ivy Cottages (Post Office)
- WRENN ID
- western-bailey-lark
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- North Hertfordshire
- Constituency
- Hitchin MP: Alistair Strathern (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 24 October 1988
- Type
- Post box
- Period
- Victorian
- Address
- Posting Box Built Into Front Wall of Number 1 Ivy Cottages (Post Office), Hexton
- OS grid reference
- TL 106 306
- Coordinates
- 51.96315, -0.39119
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The posting box, built into the front wall of Number 1 Ivy Cottages (Post Office), dates from 1860 and is the earliest of its kind in Hertfordshire. It was moved to its current position in 1922 from the wall of the Manor Lodge. This cast iron box is painted red and features a narrow rectangular upright panel measuring 30 inches by 10 inches. It has a flat pedimented top with a hood below that displays 'POST OFFICE' in raised letters. Below the hood is a small postal aperture with a metal flap, and on the lower rim, it reads 'LETTER BOX'.
The door of the box is divided into three horizontal panels. The top panel features the royal cypher 'V R' with a crown and the words 'CLEARED AT'. The middle panel is left blank for temporary notices regarding the times of clearing, while the bottom panel includes the keyhole and lock. Below the door, there is a large plain panel, and the maker's name, 'SMITH AND HAWKES BIRMINGHAM', is inscribed on the bottom rim. Wall boxes were introduced in 1857.
Local climate
Posting Box Built Into Front Wall of Number 1 Ivy Cottages (Post Office) sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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