The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main strategies to delivering correspondence; senders can be necessitated to get their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It what food 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 in the experiment generated a different four being set up on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part with 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 are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and yes it what food was in 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being be for sale by 50 percent sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop of which criticism how 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 a huge success so, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which we click here have been used to today. It was 24 months prior to this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate because of the camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for ten years.
For the population most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.