A Fine Pair ~ Malton - Wheelgate

Number 1520 in a series of caches where a red telephone box is in close proximity to a post box.

The rules are that they have to be able to be photographed together, be not more than 100’ apart and the phone boxes have to be red.

Two telephone kiosks. Grade II listed (13/01/1988) Type K6. Designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Made by Macfarlane and Co. Cast-iron. Square kiosks with domed roofs. Unperforated crowns to top panels and margin glazing to windows and doors.

Recessed red posting box with two slots in plate above for Local letters Only and Other Letters. 

Pair of Grade II listed red K6 telephone kiosks adjacent to the Post Office.

Charles l made a postal service available to the public - the recipient paying the postage! The postal service evolved through a network of mail coaches, uniformed postmen (1793), mail trains, money orders (1838) and the uniform penny post in 1840.

The large Post Office building in Wheelgate was opened for business on Monday 19 June 1911 after long continued complaints of the inadequacy of the old office at Butcher-corner.  The much-needed improvements were chiefly brought about by Mr. Ashwell, the energetic postmaster who, since arriving in Malton in 1885 literally transformed the service in the town. 

On Mr. Ashwell's arrival in 1885, there were three town postmen, three for the country, three clerks, and three messengers. This soon increased to five town postmen and one auxiliary, four country postmen and four messengers. Originally Maltonians were favoured with one delivery a day; in 1885 there were three then four. 

The relocated post office was in premises formerly occupied as the large drapery establishment of Mr. Charles Pullon which were thoroughly altered and refitted.  You may be astonished to learn that the expense of the necessary alterations at the new office were said to have been met by Mr. Ashwell himself, a percentage on the cost being all that was allowed by Government. In the alterations at the new office. Mr Ashwell was his own architect. Mr. W. Wilson, builder, of Norton, carried out the necessary work under his orders.

The Post Office, Wheelgate. Malton c1912 taken by Randolph Smith of St. Michael Street. Malton

This building now serves as a Royal Mail delivery/sorting office with the Post Office having since relocated twice more.  It moved a few doors down to the rear of the (now closed) Co-op in Wheelgate House and now resides in the Market Place.

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Bench Mark. Wheelgate -  Malton

Tucked away behind one of the K6 phone boxes outside the delivery office you will see a Bench Mark.

Bench marks were historically used to record the height above sea level of a location as surveyed against the Mean Sea Level data taken at Newlyn in Cornwall. They were used as part of a greater surveying network by the UK Ordnance Survey. If the exact height of one bench mark is known then the exact height of the next can be found by measuring the difference in heights, through a process of spirit levelling. In this way hundreds of thousands of bench marks were sited all around the UK & Ireland from the mid 19th to late 20th centuries.

Bench marks are commonly found on older buildings or other semi-permanent features such as stone bridges or walls. Due to updated mapping techniques and technological advances such as GPS, bench marks are no longer maintained. Many are still in existence and the markers will probably remain until they are eventually destroyed by redevelopment or erosion.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a busy High Street - Stealth required!