The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders can be necessitated to bring their mail to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using 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 of the experiment generated a different four being attached to Guernsey, one of these now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there was clearly 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, and yes it is at 1859 that attempts were created 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 through the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be available 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 failed to receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop of such criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not only a huge success so, a further design came in 1879. This final design is the one with which we are accustomed to today. It was 2 years prior to this that this iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the preferred colour option was green as a way 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 had been agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately a decade.
For the populace most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access with a delivery service commercial letterboxes never before witnessed in Great Britain.