The demise of the postbox topper

All across the nation, crochet and knitting groups are bowing their heads in sorrow. Why you might ask?. The answer is that the stage where they display their creative genius – the humble postbox – is getting a makeover and being brought up to the twenty-first century as an all purpose box that will take parcels but requires a solar panel on top. So, no more topper!

We first began to see these toppers in 2012 over the festive season, although this soon spread to other key times of the year such as Easter. They were used to celebrate various frontline workers during the pandemic, to celebrate queen Elizabeth’s Diamond and platinum jubilees and lots of other seasonal and notable events. Our first topper in Elswick was for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Royal mail have always been quite welcoming of the topper, recognizing that the good press they generate is welcome to them in the days of declining customer satisfaction

Bu then this began to happen.

Postboxes began to be taken apart and wrapped up for ‘regrading’, quite sinister and very inconvenient if your only other postbox was miles away. And in true British fashion you have to wait weeks for the second gang to come along and restore it.

This minor inconvenience for customers is a disaster for the yarn bomber or wooly vandals, as we have been called. The inclusion of the solar panel in the top means it cant be covered.

But fear not, wooly vandals are a crafty lot (pardon the pun) and have soon devised ways to keep their postboxes swathed in yarn or found alternative sites.

Here in Elswick, we woke one Sunday morning to find that the postbox ninjas had been in the dead of night and wrapped up our box and it is still wrapped four weeks later. We’ve missed the prime Easter season too! Never fear, we got our thinking caps on and came up ith bollard toppers, Easter bunting and a nice line in decorated wreaths.

The postbox topper will live on although in a much reduced version but watch out any gate pillars, bollards, even benches and road signs. A wooly vandal cannot be stopped!