The event from the Letterbox

The event from the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main methods for delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to bring their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on 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 to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to test out the newest system.
The success of the experiment triggered a different four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was confirmed no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, plus it was at 1859 that attempts were built 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 in the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being be available by 50 % sizes; a website bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of such criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success and thus, another design arrived 1879. This final design may be the one with which were acquainted with today. It was 2 years prior to this how the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green in order to blend in using the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately ten years.
For people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access to your delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.