The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main means of delivering a letter; senders could be necessitated to take 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 also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sound familiar.
It what food was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to try out the newest system.
The success with the experiment triggered a different four being set up on Guernsey, info now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly to date no universal pillar box design that we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in 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 the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be around in two sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop for these criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not only a huge success and thus, an extra design arrived 1879. This final design could be the one with which we have been accustomed to today. It was a couple of years before this 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 blend in using the green more info British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that the structures were to tough to locate because of the camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for decade.
For the population at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.