The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main means of delivering instructions; senders will be necessitated to take their mail with 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 also to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to try out the brand new system.
The success of the experiment generated yet another four being attached to Guernsey, info now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland since 1853.
However, there was up to now no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, and it what food was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, this area ended up being be around in two sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not just a huge success and so, an extra design started in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we are used to today. It was 24 months ahead of this that the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most preferred colour option was green in order to multi letter boxes Melbourne Australia blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to challenging to locate because of the camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately ten years.
For people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.