The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders would be necessitated to create their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons 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 brand new system.
The success with the experiment led to one more four being placed on Guernsey, info now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it is at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal more info slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being be for sale in two sizes; a larger 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 contrary to the backdrop for 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 a huge success so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one that we're familiar with today. It was 24 months prior to this that this 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 using the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for about 10 years.
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, everyone was afforded access to a delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.