The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders will be necessitated to bring their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It is at 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to test out the brand new system.
The success in the experiment resulted in a different four being installed on Guernsey, info now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there is up to now no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, this area ended up being to be available in 2 sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of such criticism that the Liverpool Special website was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not a huge success and thus, a further design came in 1879. This final design will be the one with which we are acquainted with today. It was two years just before this that the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the 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 hard to locate because of the camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for a decade.
For people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.