The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main means of delivering instructions; senders will be necessitated to take their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to try out the brand new system.
The success from the experiment resulted in an additional four being installed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there were to date no universal pillar box design that we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included read more the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, this area was to be available by 50 % sizes; a greater 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 that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success and so, an extra design started in 1879. This final design may be the one with which were used to today. It was a couple of years just before this that the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most well-liked colour option was green in order to blend in while using green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints the structures were to challenging to locate because of the camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as a decade.
For the populace most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.