The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main means of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to take 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 dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to test out the newest system.
The success with the experiment triggered yet another four being attached to Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being be around in two sizes; a bigger 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 up against the backdrop of these criticism that this 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 may be the one with which we're used to today. It was two years prior to this the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the most well-liked colour option was green in order to blend in using the green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate due to their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately decade.
For the people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.