The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders could 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 also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and ring a bell.
It was at 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to understand the brand new system.
The success in the experiment resulted in yet another four being set up on Guernsey, one of which now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland as of 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design in which we are 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 improvements upon the initial included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the lamp was to be available in two sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of these criticism 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 really a huge success and so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one in which we have been used to today. It was a couple of years just before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, 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 hard read more to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately decade.
For the people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to your delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.