The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to create 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 would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to try out the brand new system.
The success with the experiment triggered yet another four being set up on Guernsey, info now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and yes it what food was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as 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 create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not only a huge success therefore, an additional design came in 1879. This final design could be the one that we're accustomed to today. It was two years just before this that the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate due to their 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 the population in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception get more info of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.