Editing Pillar box (section)

===Channel Islands problem===
[[File:Victorian post box Guernsey.jpg|thumb|upright|This VR box in [[Guernsey]] is the oldest box in use in the British Isles]]
The advent of the British wayside letter box can be traced to [[Rowland Hill (postal reformer)|Sir Rowland Hill]], Secretary of the Post Office, and his Surveyor for the Western District, and noted novelist, [[Anthony Trollope]]. Hill sent Trollope to the [[Channel Islands]] to ascertain what could be done about the problem of collecting the mail on a pair of islands. The problems identified in the Channel Islands were caused by the irregular sailing times of the Royal Mail [[packet ship|packet boat]]s serving the islands due to weather and [[tide]]s.

Trollope subsequently arrived in [[Jersey]] in the early Spring of 1852 and proceeded to survey both islands. His recommendation back to Hill was to employ a device he may have seen in use in Paris: a "letter-receiving pillar". It was to be made of cast iron, about 1.5 metres high, octagonal in design and painted olive green. Trollope estimated that four would be needed for [[Guernsey]] and five for Jersey. The foundry of Vaudin & Son in Jersey was commissioned to produce them and the first four were erected in David Place, New Street, Cheapside and St Clement's Road in [[Saint Helier]] and brought into public use on 23 November 1852. Guernsey received its first three pillar boxes on 8 February 1853.

They were an instant success, despite some obvious problems with rainwater ingress. One Vaudin box still stands in Union Street, [[Saint Peter Port]], Guernsey whilst another is in the [[British Postal Museum & Archive]] collection in [[London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/collections/pillarboxes/pillarboxes-channelisland/ |title=Channel Island Box, c.1853 |publisher=postalheritage.org.uk}}</ref>