The Development of your Letterbox

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main methods for delivering instructions; senders could be necessitated to create 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 also to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It is at 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the brand new system.
The success from the experiment resulted in an additional four being installed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there were to date no universal pillar box design that we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As website of 1859, this area ended up being to be available in two sizes; a greater 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 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been familiar with 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 was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for 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 to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.

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