The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering correspondence; senders will be necessitated to bring their mail to your 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 would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success of the experiment led to an additional four being installed 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 is up to now no universal pillar box design with which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and it 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 the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents from click here your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being to be accessible in 2 sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not 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, this was not only a huge success so, a further design came in 1879. This final design could be the one that we're accustomed to today. It was 2 years just before this how the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the preferred colour option was green in order to blend in using the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate due to 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 most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.