The Development on the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main strategies to delivering instructions; senders can be necessitated to create their mail to a 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 would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success from the experiment triggered a different four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there were as yet no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, and yes it was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being be for sale in two sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, here the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop of these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not just a huge success and thus, an additional design were only available in 1879. This final design will be the one that we are used to today. It was 24 months before this that this iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in using the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints that the structures were to hard to locate due to their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as decade.
For the people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.