The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main ways of delivering instructions; senders will be necessitated to get 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 dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It is at 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to test out the modern system.
The success in the experiment led to one more four being installed on Guernsey, info now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland since 1853.
However, there were to date no universal pillar box design that were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being to be accessible by 50 percent sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of these criticism 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 just a huge success therefore, another design started in 1879. This final design will be the one that we have been used to today. It was a couple of years ahead of this the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in using the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to difficult to locate because of their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for 10 years.
For people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the check here ability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.