The event in the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main methods for delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to bring 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 has on a uniform and ring a bell.
It was at 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to test out the newest system.
The success of the experiment triggered an additional four being attached to Guernsey, one of which now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland by 1853.
However, there were up to now no universal pillar box design that we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and yes it is at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm more info in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being to be around in two sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was from 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 just a huge success so, a further design arrived 1879. This final design will be the one in which we are accustomed to today. It was 24 months ahead of this that this iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most well-liked colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that the structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as decade.
For the population at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.