The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main ways of delivering instructions; senders can be necessitated to bring their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the brand new system.
The success in the experiment led to one more four being attached to Guernsey, info now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being be available in two sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop for these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not only a huge success so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one in which were acquainted with today. It was two 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 while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that this structures were to challenging to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for a decade.
For the read more populace 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 were afforded access to your delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.