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 junctions. 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 175 yards or so).

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.

Derek
Derek Pattenson, Webmaster
 

Privacy Policy

Your privacy and security is important to us.
  1. This site does not use cookies, with the exception of a single cookie to flag your acceptance of these terms.
  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.
  3. gpo-markers.derektp.co.uk uses web server log files. These files contain internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser agent information, date/time stamp and requested page addresses. This data is used purely to analyze trends, administer the site and diagnose faults. IP addresses and other logged information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. We will never sell, share or disclose any information to third parties unless required by law to do so.
  4. This is a personal project. Any views or opinions expressed explicitly or implicitly on this site are personal and belong solely to the site owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organisations that the owner may be associated with in a personal or professional capacity. Any views are not intended to malign or cause offence to any religion, ethnic group, club, organisation, company or individual. All content on the site is provided for entertainment or educational purposes only. The owner makes no representations about the accuracy or completeness of any information in the site nor for the availabilty of the whole or any part of the site. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries or damages arising from the display or use of this site.
  5. Textual content throughout the site is the copyright © Derek Pattenson 2022. 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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