The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail to some 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 would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success from the experiment resulted in one more four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly to date no universal pillar box design that we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the box was to be for sale by 50 % sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, plus 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, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been accustomed to today. It was two years ahead of this the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most well-liked colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. multi mail boxes Melbourne Australia However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as ten years.
For people 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, individuals were afforded access to a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.