The event in the Letterbox

The event in the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were 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 through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was at 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having 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 resulted in yet another four being set up on Guernsey, one of these now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there was confirmed no universal pillar box design that were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it what food was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp was to be around in 2 sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to 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 make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not really a huge success so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design may be the one that were used to today. It was 24 months prior to this that the iconic red colour from the post multiple mailboxes Melbourne Australia boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most well-liked colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that the structures were to hard to locate because of their camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately ten years.
For the populace in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.