The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to bring their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to understand the brand new system.
The success with the experiment led to one more four being set up on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was up to now no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and it is at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, this area would have been to be for sale in two sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of such criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office click here (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not only a huge success so, a further design arrived 1879. This final design may be the one that we have been acquainted with today. It was 2 years prior to this that the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the most preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that this structures were to hard to locate due to their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for about ten years.
For the populace at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.