The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to create their mail to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to understand the modern system.
The success from the experiment generated a different four being set up on Guernsey, info now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there was confirmed no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, also it is at 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being be accessible by 50 % sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was up against 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 just a huge success and thus, a further design came in 1879. This final design could be the one in which we're familiar with website today. It was a couple of years ahead of this that this iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most well-liked colour option was green to be able to blend in while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that the structures were to hard to locate because of the camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about decade.
For people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.