The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering a letter; senders can be necessitated to create their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It is at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the brand new system.
The success in the experiment led to yet another four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with 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 designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being be around by 50 percent sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not just a huge success so, a further design were only available in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we're accustomed to today. It was 24 months ahead of this that this iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green in order to blend in while using green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate due to their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for decade.
For the people click here at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.