The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main ways of delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to take their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to try out the new system.
The success from the experiment generated one more four being set up on Guernsey, one of these now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland since 1853.
However, there is confirmed no universal pillar box design with which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and yes it was in 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp was to be around in two sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the get more info standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of which criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not a huge success and thus, an extra design came in 1879. This final design will be the one in which we are used to today. It was a couple of years ahead of this how the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately ten years.
For the people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.