The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders would 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, and to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to understand the modern system.
The success in the experiment generated a different four being attached to Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland by 1853.
However, there is as yet no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and yes it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be around by 50 percent sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop for these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not only a huge success so, another design arrived website 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been used to today. It was 24 months prior to this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the preferred colour option was green as a way 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 most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.