The Development in the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main ways of delivering instructions; senders could be necessitated to bring their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and ring a bell.
It what food was in 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success from the experiment led to yet another four being installed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there is up to now no universal pillar box design that 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.
here Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being to be around in two sizes; a bigger 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 up against the backdrop of these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not just a huge success so, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one with which were used to today. It was 24 months before this how 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 all the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard to locate because of their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for about ten years.
For the people most importantly, 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 with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.