The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that 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 set up on Jersey to understand the modern system.
The success in the experiment generated a different four being set up on Guernsey, one of these now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland since 1853.
However, there was up to now no universal pillar box design that we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option get more info over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, this area would have been to be for sale in two sizes; a larger 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 contrary to the backdrop of such criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success and thus, an additional design arrived 1879. This final design may be the one that we are accustomed to today. It was 2 years just before this the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in with the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to challenging 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 approximately 10 years.
For the population most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.