The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main methods for delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to get 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, and to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It is at 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to understand the new system.
The success from the experiment triggered a different four being installed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland since 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design in which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further check here improvements upon the initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being to be around in 2 sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop of which 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 became not just a huge success therefore, an additional design arrived 1879. This final design may be the one with which we are acquainted with today. It was two years before this how the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to difficult to locate because of the camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately decade.
For people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to a delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.