The Development of the Letterbox

· 2 min read
The Development of the Letterbox

In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders can be necessitated to get their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It what food was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the newest system.
The success of the experiment led to an additional four being installed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was up to now no universal pillar box design in which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, this area was to be for sale in two sizes; a more substantial 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 contrary to the backdrop for these criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not a huge success and thus, an extra design started in 1879. This final design could be the one with which were accustomed to today.  wall letter box  was two years before this how the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most well-liked colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate this can camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for ten years.
For people in particular, 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 no time before witnessed in Great Britain.