The event from the Letterbox

The event from the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders can be necessitated to bring 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 has on a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was 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 test out the new system.
The success in the experiment generated yet another four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland by 1853.
However, there was confirmed no universal pillar box design that were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being be available by 50 percent sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of which criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office check here (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success therefore, another design started in 1879. This final design will be the one that we have been used to today. It was a couple of years just before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most well-liked colour option was green in order to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate because of the camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as ten years.
For the population in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.