The bigger, brighter, better

Colne Valley Postal History Museum

PUBLIC OPEN DAYS

Thank you to everyone who came to our 2024 Open Day on Sunday 15th September! We had more than 50 visitors from as far away as Nottingham, Wexford, China and Malaysia! Keep watching the site for 2025 dates.

Can't make it in person? -You can take our special Virtual Tour of the Museum and its collections which are on YouTube by clicking here : https://youtu.be/V1P-eGUsc4M or listen to Steve's interview with Jacky at Gateway-FM in Basildon here: https://cvphm.org.uk/Steve-Knight.mp3

This is a privately owned Postal History Museum in the heart of East Anglia. The collection has been built up over a number of years by one man and now comprises 167 different ex-British Post Office and Overseas Postal Administration letter boxes together with 25 Stamp Vending Machines, 75 posters, 135 enamel signs, 27 Postal balances, two telephone kiosks, three bicycles, thousands of documents, many uniforms and associated artefacts. Our oldest post box dates from 1859 and our youngest from 2015 - we cover every reign in between in detail. The museum houses the second-largest private collection of Post Boxes in the UK and is an invaluable resource for teaching and historical research. In addition, the Museum is also home to the National AA Village Signs collection, comprising more than 65 of these iconic round village name signs from across the UK - the largest display of these anywhere. At least one public open day is held each year, but otherwise there is no general public access other than by prior arrangement with the Curator. Visitors are normally welcome by prior arrangement at any reasonable time. Contact us at the address above. 

Use the navigation menu at the top of this page to explore our collection, learn about the history of our boxes and see what the Museum has to offer.