The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main ways of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to get their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 that 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 try out the newest system.
The success in the experiment generated a different four being installed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp would have been to be around 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 up against the backdrop for these criticism 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 just a huge success and thus, a further design were only available in 1879. This final design will here be the one that we are acquainted with today. It was a couple of years just before this that the 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, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to tough to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as ten years.
For people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.