The event in the Letterbox

The event in the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main ways of delivering correspondence; senders could be necessitated to get their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the modern system.
The success of the experiment triggered an additional four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and became 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 box ended up being to be accessible in 2 sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of such criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to generate another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not really a huge success and so, a further design were only available in 1879. This final design will be the one with which were acquainted with today. It was a couple of years just before this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the most well-liked colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard to locate this can camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for 10 years.
For the populace most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access to some website delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.