The Development of the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main methods for delivering instructions; senders will be necessitated to take their mail to 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 ring a bell.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to 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 for the mainland as of 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design in which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it is at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the check here 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 through the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being to be accessible by 50 percent sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was from 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, another design arrived 1879. This final design will be the one with which were used to today. It was 24 months prior to this how the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in using the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard 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 people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.