The event from the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main means of delivering a letter; 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 from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success from the experiment resulted in one more four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland by 1853.
However, there were up to now no universal pillar box design in which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, this area ended up being to be for sale in 2 sizes; a greater 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 against the backdrop of which criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not just a huge success so, an extra design started in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we are familiar with today. It was 24 months ahead of this the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate due to their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red more info 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 with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.