The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main means of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to bring their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to understand the modern system.
The success from the experiment triggered a different four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland by 1853.
However, there is confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, also it what food was in 1859 that attempts were created 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 original included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp was to be accessible by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop for these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to generate another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not really a huge success therefore, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design is the one with which we're familiar with today. It was a couple of years before this that this iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that the structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for a decade.
For the people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people commercial letterboxes were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.