The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail to your 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 dons a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to test out the modern system.
The success with the experiment resulted in an additional four being set up on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland by 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design that we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and it was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as 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, the lamp was to be for sale by 50 percent sizes; a bigger and wider website size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such criticism 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 and thus, an extra design arrived 1879. This final design could be the one that were used to today. It was 24 months before this how the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate because of the camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as 10 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, people were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.