The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main means of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to bring their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sound familiar.
It is at 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the newest system.
The success in the experiment led to yet another four being set up on Guernsey, one of which now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland since 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design with which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, plus it what food was in 1859 that attempts were created 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 initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being be for sale in two sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the click here standardised pillar boxes would 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, it was not 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 before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in while using green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints that the structures were to difficult to locate due to their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately a decade.
For people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.