Close them, perhaps, but don’t sell off these evocations of times past

From Collette Crill.

I WRITE to express my shock, and considerable disappointment, on reading the recent articles in the JEP concerning the proposed removal and ‘auctioning off’ of a number (51?) of historic Jersey post boxes around our Island.

While I can quite see the need to close these boxes, in our digital age, I am greatly saddened at the prospect of their potential removal and sale.

These post boxes form an important part of our Island history. They represent, in the clearest way, a whole different way of life from the past.

That Jersey Post should even consider their removal is, to me, quite extraordinary.

Quite apart from the fact that our post boxes illustrate, vividly, a sequence of historic periods when everyone used them to communicate on a daily basis – and, as such, were a true lifeline for many – they are deeply aesthetically pleasing in their own right, and always add something special and evocative to the physical beauty of their different locations around the Island.

To remove them would, in my view, be a grave mistake.

Seal them by all means. But please, Jersey Post, leave them in place for the enjoyment and education of generations to come, rather than selling them off to be enjoyed by a privileged few.

I have every confidence that one of our local conservation bodies, such as the Société Jersiaise, the National Trust for Jersey, or the Heritage Trust, would be delighted to maintain them for the future, at no cost to Jersey Post.