2014 Post Box in the wall, Calderwood Lodge
On the Stoneymeadow Road, nestled in the old stone wall, directly outside Calderwood Lodge House (just before Allers Farm), is a hole in the wall. It looks quite odd to see a formed hole in the wall, and is believed to once have housed an old post box.
I found it fairly strange when pointed out to me by Jim Brown. When i took this photograph in September 2014, closer inspection showed that actually part of the wall has been replaced in a very orderly fashion, as though something was there before. You can see the larger, redder sandstone blocks that have clearly been put there later. It made me wonder if there had once been an ornate entrance motiff or sign there, after all it was the lodge entrance to the grand Calderwood estate?
The blocks are formed, very square, infilling something there previously. Of course, this may have simply been a repair to the wall.
When i posted it on social media, a couple of nearby residents suggested it may have been a coal hole, for coal deliveries, but i think the stone and the hole itself would be a lot dirtier and perhaps wider. In October 2014, Gordon Cook, emailed me a similar photo taken a few years earlier. The hole is more defined and i am inclined to think that a postbox, at such a previous tourist location, makes perfect sense. Comparing the two photos, it’s easy to see the wall slowly being covered by nature.
2000 Hole in the Wall by Gordon Cook