The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main methods for delivering a letter; senders can be necessitated to take their mail to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and ring a bell.
It was at 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to understand the brand new system.
The success in the experiment triggered an additional four being set up on Guernsey, one of these now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was clearly as yet no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the box would have been to be available by 50 percent sizes; a larger 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 from the backdrop for 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 became not a huge success and thus, an extra design arrived 1879. This final design could be the one with which we're used to today. It was 2 years just before this how here the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints how the structures were to challenging to locate due to their camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as decade.
For the population at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access to your delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.