The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering instructions; senders can be necessitated to create their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It what food 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 attached to Jersey to understand the new system.
The success from the experiment triggered a different 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 by 1853.
However, there was clearly as yet no universal pillar box design with which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, plus it is at 1859 that attempts were made 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 more info the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being be available by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of these criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to generate another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not a huge success so, another design came in 1879. This final design could be the one with which were familiar with today. It was a couple of years prior to this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green in order to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints the structures were to challenging to locate due to their camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about decade.
For the population in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.