Arthur Reeder's postal museum on the Isle of Wight houses one of the largest collections of postboxes in the country, with 260 examples from across the UK and beyond. The collection began in 1994 when Reeder rescued a damaged railway postbox from a skip at Rhyl station in north Wales, paying £20 for it.
Among the standout items is a postbox shaped like a giant tin of baked beans from the former Heinz factory in Park Royal, London. Other boxes come from locations as diverse as East Mey in Scotland, Truro in Cornwall, Cork in Ireland, and Hong Kong.
Reeder, a retired electrician, built his collection through word of mouth and connections with Royal Mail. He is a member of the Letter Box Study Group and has become an expert on postbox history, able to identify any box from a photograph. Some boxes have come from fellow collectors who have died, including a friend in Somerset and a former postal worker in Cowes.
He opened his museum in 2006 to store the growing collection, and now welcomes visitors by appointment, from individuals to groups of up to 90. Reeder laments the loss of local postboxes, including one on a telegraph pole near his home that was removed last Christmas, forcing elderly residents to walk a mile to the nearest box.
He is sceptical about the future of letter writing, predicting that modern postboxes may not last 50 years. While he hopes his collection will continue, he fears it may be dispersed after his death. For now, he enjoys sharing his passion with visitors.
