17 December 2014
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Dickens Fellowship member, Norman Munn as Charles Dickens and Marion Dickens, Dickens’ great-great granddaughter
Charles Dickens’ postbox, installed by Royal Mail at the author’s request in the nineteenth century, has been recommissioned and put back into service. ...
Charles Dickens’ postbox, installed by Royal Mail at the author’s request in the nineteenth century, has been recommissioned and put back into service.
The postbox in Gads Hill, Higham, Kent, was officially reopened outside Dickens’ former home and now school, Gads Hill Place, in December, by his great, great granddaughter, Marion Dickens.
A plaque has been attached next to the box to highlight its historical connection to the author.
Marion Dickens said: ‘In our digital world, handwritten letters are more appreciated than ever. Being able to post mine in the letterbox regularly used by my great-great-grandfather makes me feel thrillingly close to him.’
Dickens enthusiast, Jennifer Mide, a tour guide at Gads Hill Place, has uncovered a letter written by Dickens where he asked for the postbox to be installed on his property.
Extract from letter sent on March 29th, 1859:
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My dear Edmund,
I think that no one seeing the place can well doubt that my house at Gad's Hill is the place for the letter-box. The wall is accessible by all sorts and conditions of men, on the bold high road, and the house altogether is the great landmark of the whole neighbourhood. Captain Goldsmith's house is up a lane considerably off the high road; but he has a garden wall abutting on the road itself….
Ever faithfully,
CD.
In several letters, he mentions his postman and sending mail in the postbox.
Extract from a letter sent on 4 September, 1857:
My dear Mrs Brown,
The postman put your letter, so full of warm heart and interest, in my hands this morning, as I was driving from Gad’s Hill to the Railway Station, to come up to town. A thousand thanks for it. ….”
Extract from letter sent on 27 December, 1869:
Welcome home, my dear Kent! I am touched by your so swift remembrance of me on your return, and send you my affectionate and hearty wishes of the season for you and yours. The postman is waiting at the gate to tramp through the snow to Rochester…
The postbox in Gads Hill, Higham, Kent, was officially reopened outside Dickens’ former home and now school, Gads Hill Place, in December, by his great, great granddaughter, Marion Dickens.
A plaque has been attached next to the box to highlight its historical connection to the author.
Marion Dickens said: ‘In our digital world, handwritten letters are more appreciated than ever. Being able to post mine in the letterbox regularly used by my great-great-grandfather makes me feel thrillingly close to him.’
Dickens enthusiast, Jennifer Mide, a tour guide at Gads Hill Place, has uncovered a letter written by Dickens where he asked for the postbox to be installed on his property.
Extract from letter sent on March 29th, 1859:
I think that no one seeing the place can well doubt that my house at Gad's Hill is the place for the letter-box. The wall is accessible by all sorts and conditions of men, on the bold high road, and the house altogether is the great landmark of the whole neighbourhood. Captain Goldsmith's house is up a lane considerably off the high road; but he has a garden wall abutting on the road itself….
Ever faithfully,
CD.
In several letters, he mentions his postman and sending mail in the postbox.
Extract from a letter sent on 4 September, 1857:
My dear Mrs Brown,
The postman put your letter, so full of warm heart and interest, in my hands this morning, as I was driving from Gad’s Hill to the Railway Station, to come up to town. A thousand thanks for it. ….”
Extract from letter sent on 27 December, 1869:
Welcome home, my dear Kent! I am touched by your so swift remembrance of me on your return, and send you my affectionate and hearty wishes of the season for you and yours. The postman is waiting at the gate to tramp through the snow to Rochester…
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