The event in the Letterbox

The event in the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders could be necessitated to take their mail to your 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 might wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to understand the modern system.
The success in the experiment led to 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 on the mainland as of 1853.
However, there were confirmed no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp would have been to be accessible in here two sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to 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 really a huge success so, a further design started in 1879. This final design is the one with which we have been accustomed to today. It was 24 months ahead of this that the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that this structures were to hard to locate due to their camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as decade.
For people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.