The Development of the Letterbox

The Development of the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main ways of delivering correspondence; senders could be necessitated to get their mail to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It is at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the newest system.
The success of the experiment generated a different four being attached to Guernsey, one of these now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly as yet no universal pillar box design in which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and yes it what food was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp was to be accessible in 2 sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop for these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not only a huge success so, an extra design arrived 1879. This final design could be the one that we have been accustomed to today. It was a couple of years prior to this how the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the most preferred colour option was green in order to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints here that this structures were to hard to locate due to their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for about ten years.
For the populace in particular, 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 to some delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.