GPO Marker Posts

This site is dedicated to those cast iron pieces of street furniture that almost always go un-noticed, but are reminders of our social, technological and physical past.

Marker posts of a standard design were used by the Post Office (later known as the General Post Office, or GPO) from the earliest days of telecommunications, when they ran the fledgling telegraph network in the UK.

The posts help to map out the route of long-distance underground telegraph cables, and their joints. In some cases these would be where branches led off the main route, but more commonly where there was a technical reason for a joint (the early cables were manufactured in relatively short lengths, and had underground joints every 150 or 176 yards).

These pages include further information about the posts themselves, hints and tips for finding previously unrecorded posts, a searchable database - including the ability to find your nearest examples, an interactive map (including Google Streetview dynamic images of many of them), and a reporting form so you can add to our database and knowledge of these relics.

The site is very much a work in progress, features are being added all the time, as are the locations and details of further posts - so watch this space, and let me know if there's more you would like to see.

Latest reported finds:

(Only posts with photos shown)

Finds per Month:

56
J
'20 		65
A
'20 		40
S
'20 		40
O
'20 		51
N
'20 		29
D
'20 		50
J
'21 		41
F
'21 		46
M
'21 		11
A
'21 		8
M
'21 		12
J
'21 		6
J
'21 		18
A
'21 		24
S
'21 		17
O
'21 		12
N
'21 		12
D
'21 		12
J
'22 		4
F
'22 		33
M
'22 		18
A
'22 		17
M
'22 		12
J
'22 		7
J
'22 		1
A
'22 		3
O
'22 		1
N
'22 		5
D
'22 		2
J
'23 		6
F
'23 		21
M
'23 		4
A
'23 		17
M
'23 		3
J
'23 		8
A
'23 		5
O
'23 		3
N
'23
Derek
Derek Pattenson, Webmaster
 
 
 

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  2. The only personal information we store is that which you enter when completing a contact or marker post reporting form. We use this data purely for the purposes of displaying information about marker posts, and to contact you should you request it in response to a query you raise. Contact details are never made available through the site.
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  5. Textual content throughout the site is the copyright © Derek Pattenson 2023. Images are copyright © Derek Pattenson unless explicitly captioned otherwise; where reproduction elsewhere is permitted there will be a link to the applicable license.
  6. While using Streetview to illustrate location of marker posts, this site is wholly separate from Google and Streetview. However it depends on Google's mapping services and we can take no responsibility for the availability or otherwise of Google's services. Click on "Map Data" or "Terms of Use" links on individual mapping and streetview images for further information.
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