The event of the Letterbox

Wiki Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main means of delivering correspondence; senders could be necessitated to get their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It is at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success from the experiment triggered a different four being installed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland by 1853.
However, there were as yet no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, and yes it was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, this area would have been to be around by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not a huge success and so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one in which we have been used to today. It was a couple of years just before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints the structures were to hard to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about 10 years.
For the population most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded more info access to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.