The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering a letter; senders could be necessitated to get their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success of the experiment triggered a different four being installed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland as of 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, plus it what food was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the get more info structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, this area would have been to be for sale by 50 % sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop for these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to generate another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not a huge success and thus, an additional design arrived 1879. This final design will be the one that we have been used to today. It was two years before this that the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the most well-liked colour option was green to be able to blend in using the green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for ten years.
For the populace in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.