The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main strategies to delivering correspondence; senders can be necessitated to get their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It what food was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to understand the newest system.
The success with the experiment triggered yet another four being attached to Guernsey, one of these now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design in which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be around by 50 percent sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the get more info standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop for these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not only a huge success so, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been familiar with today. It was 2 years prior to this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that 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 ten years.
For the population most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.