The event on the Letterbox

The event on the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering correspondence; senders will 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 to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and ring a bell.
It was at 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to try out the new system.
The success from the experiment generated an additional four being placed on Guernsey, info now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly to date no universal pillar box design that we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, plus it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be for sale in 2 sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of which criticism the Liverpool here Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not only a huge success and so, an extra design arrived 1879. This final design will be the one in which we are acquainted with today. It was a couple of years before this that the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate due to their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for a decade.
For the people in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.