Editing Pillar box (section)

===First mainland and Isle of Wight boxes===
[[File:1st Mainland Box.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Early British John Butt box (type PB1/1) in [[Haverfordwest]] Town Museum]]
[[File:Vintage Irish pillar box.JPG|thumb|upright|Preserved "Ashworth" early Irish pillar box at the [[National Museum of Ireland]], [[Dublin]]]]
The very first boxes erected in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain and Ireland]] are not recorded, but the designs varied from area to area, as each district surveyor issued their own specifications and tendered to their own chosen [[foundries]]. The earliest ones were essentially experimental, including octagonal pillars or fluted columns, vertical slits instead of horizontal ones, and other unusual features.

The Post Office archives record that the first box in mainland Britain was erected in Botchergate, [[Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle]], in 1853. This fact is commemorated today with a replica Penfold box, located outside the [[Old Town Hall, Carlisle|Old Town Hall]] in Carlisle city centre. The first six in London were installed on 11 April 1855. The earliest surviving British designs are four Butt boxes made in [[Gloucester]] for the Western Area. These are at Barnes Cross, near [[Sherborne]], [[Dorset]], inside the former [[Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse]], [[Plymouth]], in the [[Haverfordwest]] town museum (formerly at Merlin's Bridge) and in the [[British Postal Museum & Archive]] store at [[Debden, Epping Forest|Debden]] (formerly at [[Ventnor railway station]], [[Isle of Wight]]). All date from 1853 to 1859, with Barnes Cross being one of the later batch. The oldest pillar boxes still in use by the Royal Mail are at [[Framlingham]] in Suffolk; this pair were founded by [[Andrew Handyside and Company]] of [[Derby]] in 1856 and are at Double Street and College Road. A third octagonal pillar of this type was at [[Gosberton]] in [[Lincolnshire]] and is now in the [[Museum of Lincolnshire Life]] in [[Lincoln, Lincolnshire|Lincoln]]. 1856 also saw various designs introduced in Scotland and the Midlands. The postbox believed to be the oldest in [[Scotland]], is a [[wall box]] which sits on the front of the [[Golspie]] Inn (formerly the Sutherland Arms Hotel); it carries the royal cypher of [[Queen Victoria]] and dates back to 1861.