New to this...

Hey I was just wondering if I could ask a few questions on here as there seems to be no kind of focal point for letterboxing?

Ive come across this rather recently and am just looking for somewhere to start, ive been walking for ages but after being to the two fixed letterboxes and finding another, I think it would add some kind of purpose to walking!

Anyways, how do people start? I mean ive heard of looking up on the obvious places like Hey Tor Saddle Tor Staple Tor Pew Tor etc. but do you just look under every rock?

I was hoping for some kind of clues maybe a charity walk but im guessing you cant obtain the full catalogue till you find 100, but how do you find those 100 with no clues???

Any response would be appreciated, thanks a lot.

ah, another monkey,

well if you go into the charity part of this website there are a few still out there from the spring meet. with there contact details on, which wil get you started and give you a insite to what to look for on the moor.

other than that look through the threads and they will give you some insite were the best places to look are...

other than that, look under all rocks with close focal points like large rocks, trees and large gorse bushes the clues tend to be close to these..

Letterboxing is an artform in itself, everyone developes their own methods to boxing.
After a while you will be able to recognise potential sites, notice I say potential, as a lot of boxes have gone missing in recent years.
It is a learning process, and then you could even reach the stage of learning the type of letterboxer on how they hide their boxes.

The most useful assest is a walking pole/stick and perhaps clues as well.
A lot of boxes these days are given out with a 10 figure map reference for use with a GPS.
This I feel has also allowed the letterbox thief (DLT) more access to finding the boxes quickly, because whan I started boxing it was very rare to find a clue of more than 6 figures.
This info also made it more difficult for the DLT to find the boxes without becoming obvious.

Anyway being positive, the popular spots have their own problems too... so many of the boxes are not what I call real boxes but kids boxes who are sort of introducing themselves to letterboxing with a cheap stamp in it.
Last year I found three boxes in the a few hundred meters with identical stamps in them, to me this sort of devalues boxing, but then I take this with a pinch of salt and give certain allowances that these are kids boxes.
What I do find sad is someone going around and deliberately destroying these boxes. Damn I have gone negative again...

Letterboxes are not as prevalent as they were 15 to 20 years ago so looking for them has become a shade harder, and it is down to perseverance. The internet has made it far far easier to pass clues between Word of Mouth boxers than it was in the early days when it wasn't "regulated" by the 100 letterbox club. When boxers used to catch the bus out to site one or two boxes and hand out the clues to the others on the bus on the way home... (This was before I started boxing).

The best site for me until a year or so ago used to be up from the track from Yellowmead farm and I used to find around 80 boxes up there - most have been removed by the farm (so I am led to believe) as it was interfering with the running of the farm and disturbing the animals, and the other site I used to adore was up from Wistmans Wood until that became a "newtake" and the boxes were given 5 years to remove the boxes.

As I said it is a case of learning how boxes are sited.

thanks a lot for all the replys, i went out today and it really helped!

stayed around the 'easy' areas and got around 35, think they were almost all kids ones though and although thats still cool, do they still stand for your 100?

coz im thinking if you wanted to get out onto real clues and onto real dartmoor, how do you do that without any clues to start with?

does anybody have any clues to letterboxes they have sited close together they could help me with possibly!?

thanks again for any replies!

35 that's really good. Yes, they will count towards your 100. Why don't you look at the charity walks section for some addresses to get some great walks, as they will be out for another couple of months. If not, if you wait until clock change, there will be a load more published.

As for getting "proper" boxes on "real" Dartmoor, it is just a matter of getting used to the tell tale signs, bits of warn grass, small rocks in front of larger rocks, etc. If you take a wander over to the Staples, Roos, Cox and Kings Tor areas, as well as Gt Mis and Little Mis, you will find quite a few boxes hiding at the moment.

Good luck.

after three trips i only have a few left to go to get to the 100, does anyone have details for how to join the 100 club without goping to the meet? is there someone to write to?? many thanks in advance!! went up to staple tors today and couldnt find that many, think i must have been looking in the wrong places??

Catalogue of Clues - £6.50 plus 80p for postage and packing

Cheques made payable to A.R.Moore and sent to :-
25 Sanderspool Cross, South Brent, South Devon, TQ10 9LR

Before you send for your catalogue you need to send a list of your 100 boxes to Woodstock Wanderers (Rog and Steph Paul.)
I expect someone on here will be able to put in the contact address for them, as I am not sure if they are using their private address.

or if not at 100 stamps, hurry up and bring them to the letterbox meet in october... then you can find all the help you need all in one big room... plus many 1 day stamps just for the meet.. that reminds me need to do on for the autum meet..

All those who have visited 100 different letterboxes are welcome to join. To become enrolled and to get your badge, please write to Stephanie and Roger Paul, Lower Burrows, Shilstone Lane, Throwleigh, Okehampton, Devon, EX20 2HX. Telephone 01647 231080 , enclosing a list of the 100 boxes that you have visited, and £2.00 per cloth badge required and a S.A.E. There are also blue badges for 200, and gold for 500 boxes. For those who have visited 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 & 4,000 different boxes, there are special laurel wreath cloth badges at £2-50p each, and for those having visited 5,000 or more boxes there is a rather special badge at £3-00p. Paper car stickers are also available for 100 Club members at 10p each, or 15p for two.

What is the best way of listing them?

Some of ours I'm sure aren't in the catalogue, and many of them didn't have clear names on them etc... and pre GPS I didn't make a note of their location..... will a description of the stamp, and rough location do!?!?!?!

Any ideas would be good as we're only 15 away from 100!!!

That will be fine. I usually put a note of the date I found the stamp as well, and if there is a registration number, write that in as well. I use a simple Excel spreadsheet, and some people use a Word Document, although a handwritten list will be fine as well.

I was just about to ask the same q's as above! How to get my badge etc so thanks for the info. I've got GPS bearings for them all so can use that.
Also I've read somewhere about the dog badge? or something of the like, can I get this along with my one as Hamish Hound has been with us (and stamped in books).
Just one more! A group we met gave us their stamp so does that count as one?
Thanks!

Yes, you can count travellers, and the dog badges can be purchased from:

“100 CLUB” FOR DOGS. Membership of “The 100 Club” has been extended to include our canine friends. Dogs who have visited 100 different “Letterboxes” with their owners can now become members of the 100 Club. They will then be entitled to wear “100 Club” dog tags on their collars. These are available from Brian Cole, of 51 Forcefield Road, Cullompton, Devon. EX15 1QB. (Tel: 01884 32582). Price £2-00p. The reverse side can be engraved at an additional cost of 3p per letter or figure. Any one interested please contact Brian Cole with a SAE and he will allocate your dog its membership number, and supply the collar tag.

Thanks, Hamish is very excited about it!

Hi,
Just to correct the address for the 100 club dog tags. In the latest edition of the letterboxers catalogue - Spring 2008 - Brian Cole's address is listed as the following:- "Tower Trophies", Greenbank, Station Road, Willand, Devon. EX15 2PR. Tel:- 01844 821850.
Well that's where he was last time I visited him. He has not informed me that he has moved.
Hope that helps.

trekkernod wrote:Hi,
Just to correct the address for the 100 club dog tags. In the latest edition of the letterboxers catalogue - Spring 2008 - Brian Cole's address is listed as the following:- "Tower Trophies", Greenbank, Station Road, Willand, Devon. EX15 2PR. Tel:- 01844 821850.
Well that's where he was last time I visited him. He has not informed me that he has moved.
Hope that helps.

Thanks. The 100 Club Letterboxing website is obviously a little bit behind the times.

we phoned up to get our registered, thought it was the easiest way, but sadly they take a while for them to turn up, but looked good on the dogs