The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders would be necessitated to take 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, also to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It was at 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 attached to Jersey to try out the brand new system.
The success from the experiment resulted in one more four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland since 1853.
However, there were confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and yes it what food was in 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. get more info Further improvements upon the first included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the box was to be for sale by 50 percent sizes; a more substantial 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 against the backdrop of which criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not a huge success so, an extra design started in 1879. This final design may be the one with which were used to today. It was 24 months prior to this that the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most well-liked colour option was green in order to blend in while using green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints the structures were to hard to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately a decade.
For the populace at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.