The event of the Letterbox

The event of the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering instructions; senders could be necessitated to get their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It 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 brand new system.
The success from the experiment generated an additional four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland by 1853.
However, there was to date no universal pillar box design with which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and 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 original included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the box would have been to be available by 50 % sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not only a security letterboxes huge success therefore, another design were only available in 1879. This final design is the one in which were acquainted with today. It was two years before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in with the green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate because of their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately a decade.
For the population in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.