The Development on the Letterbox

The Development on 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 to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success of the experiment triggered a different four being installed on Guernsey, one of these 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 in which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original 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 didn't 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 was not only a huge success therefore, an additional design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been familiar with today. It was 2 years before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in with the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints the structures were to challenging 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 populace in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, multi unit letter boxes for flats individuals were afforded access to a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.