The event in the Letterbox

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders will be necessitated to get their mail to some 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 would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to understand the new system.
The success in the experiment led to one more four being installed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, plus it was in 1859 that attempts were made 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 main included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp would have been to be accessible by 50 % sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of such criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to generate another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not only a huge success and thus, an additional design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one in which we are used to today. It was a couple of years before this that the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the most well-liked colour option was green in order to get more info blend in while using green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that this structures were to difficult to locate due to their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as ten years.
For people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.