The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders would be necessitated to create 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 sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to try out the new system.
The success of the experiment generated one more four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland as of 1853.
However, there were confirmed no universal pillar box design that we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and it what food was in 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the 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 box would have been to be accessible in 2 sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop for these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not a huge success so, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which were acquainted with today. It was a couple of years just before this the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the most well-liked colour option was green to be able to blend in using the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard to locate because of the camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for 10 years.
For the populace most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending click here and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.