An unusual post
I had been meaning for a while to do a post about post boxes and was on the look out for some early hexagonal pillar boxes when I came across this, a village post box set in its own little building. It was built because Rous Lench is the Victorian estate village par excellence.
Rous Lench was held by the Rous family, and then the Rouse Boughtons, from 1382 to 1876. It was the last of the local Rouse Boughtons, Sir Charles Henry Rouse Boughton, who improved the village with a magnificent Gothic school and village hall, plus various cottages. Then in 1876 he sold out to the improbably named Rev W K W Chafy Chafy, who made further improvements. The letter box by the village green, set in sandstone with a timber-framed gable and, I think, the Chafy coat of arms, is one of his felicities. What a telling reminder, in these days of the email and the tweet, of the importance of letters and their housing. Rev Chafy’s letterbox is truly an asset amongst the hedges, evergreens, and honeysuckle of this verdant Worcestershire village.
19 comments:
Philip, this post and the names it contains is probably the most quintessentially English thing I have ever read (after Wodehouse!)
As always hugely informative and entertaining. A complete joy in fact.
Thank you so much. Re-reading it, the repeated names also look like something from Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Yes this is wonderful Victorian architectural overkill. With a name like that you would have to build a letterbox the size of a small house.
Did the Victorians go in for repetitive names, particularly? One thinks of Jerome K. Jerome.
What King or Queen is on the postbox? My local postbox growing up was a 'VR' but it disappeared in the 1980s. There was also a 'GR' about a mile away, everything else was 'ER'.
Emile: It's interesting, this doubling of names. Wasn't the man for whom the wonderful Harlaxton Manor in Lincolnshire was built called Gregory Gregory? He'd have been given his name just before the Victorian period. So maybe it's a 19th-century thing.
Vinogirl: I don;t remember which monarch is on this box - sorry! I'll have to return as I now know that there is another similar box in a village near Rous Lench.
Great photo - I love the wide barge boards on the structure and the decorative ridge tiles. The red brick cottage in the background looks quite beautiful.
VK: Thank you. I'll have to do some more posts about this place. It has several stunning buildings.
By the look of it that's an early Victorian box. There should be a 'V' and an 'R' with a crest above the letter slit.
Signed: Rowland Hill
Got it! It's a 'VR', sure enough. I blew up the picture to check.
Signed: David Hemmings
Great post's post.
I think the idea of the landed gentry improving their village with a magnificent Gothic school, a village hall, letter boxes and cottages is admirable. Since the government had its priorities elsewhere, the Rouse Boughtons (and other families like them) were left to pick up the slack. I would say this, even if the Rouse Boughtons gained financially from an improved village.
I still can't decide which is more wonderful, the postbox or the Rev's name!
There's more about this at the British Listed Buildings website.
Its companion is at nearby Radford.
Thank you all for these comments.
Hels: I agree about these improvements. There were no doubt all kinds of motivations - profit, kudos, etc - but many Victorian villagers had to put up with truly awful housing, and 'improved' estate villages helped alleviate this.
Anon: Many thanks for the links.
I feel I ought to have heard of this place and only came across it by putting my father's name into a search engine - Rowland Palmer Rous - Do you think there is any connection with the 'Rous' bit? I would be intrigued to know. Ann
Foreveryoung: According to the Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names, Rous Lench is so-called because there was a Rous family there, presumably lords of the manor, in the 14th century.Gloucestershire has a village called Duntisbourne Rouse, apparently named after another medieval family, called le Rous.
the actual postbox was made by Smith and Hawkes Birmingham between 1861-71
Yercombe: Many thanks for the info.
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