The Development of your Letterbox

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to create their mail to some 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 would wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 how 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 newest system.
The success in the experiment led to one more four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there was as yet no universal pillar box design with which we're 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 took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the box was 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 didn't receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of these criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not really a huge success and thus, a further design came in 1879. This final design is the one with which we are acquainted with today. It was two years before this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in using the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to hard to locate this can camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for a decade.
For the populace in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and read more receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to your delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.

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