The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering a letter; senders can be necessitated to create their mail to 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 to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and ring a bell.
It what food was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success from the experiment generated one more four being set up on Guernsey, one of these now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was to date no universal pillar box design in which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further Australian made security letterboxes improvements upon the original included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, this area would have been to be available in 2 sizes; a more substantial 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 (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not a huge success and thus, an additional design started in 1879. This final design could be the one with which we're used to today. It was two years prior to this that the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, preferred colour option was green in order to blend in with the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints how the structures were to difficult to locate this can camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately ten years.
For the populace in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.