post box

Wall-mounted cast-iron post box, erected c.1890, of WB87/2 Victorian Type C with VR inscription and crown motif. The letter opening is sheltered by a sloped panel with lettering 'POST OFFICE' cast to top, over door with slot for collection time notices to top, a lock and small door handle below. Moulded architrave forms outer edge of box and manufacturer's mark 'W.T.Allen & Co. London' cast below door. Set in roughcast rendered wall at bottom of steps providing access to mid-twentieth-century housing estate.

This class of post box was manufactured from Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887 and installed until the end of her reign in 1901. A robustly elegant box, it is a functional and easily recognisable feature of the historic built environment illustrating the insignia of the British monarch until Independence. It was originally located on the southern side of Analore Street when the cattle fair green was held where there is now residential development north of the road. The fair green and cattle market on the Ballybay road from Clones would have clearly have been a focal point for the surrounding rural community, and although the market has gone, the post box on this site is still in use today.