The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders could be necessitated to take their mail to a 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 might wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It what food was in 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 installed on Jersey to test 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 for the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly up to now no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp would have been to be available in 2 sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop for these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success therefore, another design arrived 1879. This final design will be the one that we're familiar with today. It was a couple of years just before this that this iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in while using green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that this structures were to difficult to locate due to their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as click here ten years.
For people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.