The event on the Letterbox

The event on the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main ways 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 through the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It is at 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 attached to Jersey to understand the brand new system.
The success in the experiment resulted in a different four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland since 1853.
However, there is to date no universal pillar box design in which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and it was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took here over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the box ended up being to be for sale by 50 percent sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, and 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, this was not only a huge success and so, a further design were only available in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we are accustomed to today. It was two years prior to this the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the most preferred colour option was green in order to blend in while using green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints how the structures were to difficult to locate due to their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about 10 years.
For the people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.