The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders can be necessitated to take their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success in the experiment resulted in yet another four being installed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for 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 with the discretion of local authorities, and it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being to be accessible in 2 sizes; a bigger 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 from the backdrop for these criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) letterboxes for apartments to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not really a huge success and thus, a further design came in 1879. This final design is the one in which were acquainted with 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, preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately decade.
For the people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to your delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.