The Development from the Letterbox

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main strategies to delivering a letter; senders could be necessitated to take their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It is at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to test out the new system.
The success from the experiment triggered an additional four being set up on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was up to now no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it is at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the box would have been to be available click here by 50 percent sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop of these criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not really a huge success and thus, another design started in 1879. This final design is the one that we are acquainted with today. It was 2 years ahead of this that the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard to locate because of the camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about decade.
For the population most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.