The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders would 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 would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success in the experiment generated an additional four being installed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland since 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, also it what food was in 1859 that attempts were created 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 initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, this area ended up being be for sale by 50 percent 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 for these 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 may be the one in which were acquainted with today. It was 2 years just before this how the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in with all the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints the structures were to challenging to locate this can camouflage, it was agreed that security letterboxes bright red was the 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 capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.