The Development in the Letterbox

The Development in the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main means of delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It what food was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success in the experiment triggered yet another four being attached to Guernsey, one of these now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly to date no universal pillar box design with which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being to be around in two sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop for these criticism that this read more Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not a huge success and thus, an additional design started in 1879. This final design will be the one that we're used to today. It was 24 months just before this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most well-liked colour option was green to be able to blend in with the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints how the structures were to tough to locate due to their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about decade.
For the people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.