The Development in the Letterbox

The Development in the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main ways of delivering correspondence; 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 from the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to understand the new system.
The success from the experiment generated an additional four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, this area would have been to be around by 50 percent sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of these criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not only a huge success therefore, an additional design came in 1879. This final design is the one in which we're accustomed to today. It was 2 years ahead of this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in while using green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to difficult to locate because of their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about decade.
For the population in particular, here the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.