The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main strategies to delivering a letter; senders would 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, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success of the experiment led to an additional four being placed on Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly up to now no universal pillar box design that we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be for sale by 50 percent sizes; a more substantial 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 against the backdrop of such criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted website the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not really a huge success and so, a further design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one that we're accustomed to today. It was 2 years before this how the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that the structures were to challenging to locate because of the camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as a decade.
For the populace at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to your delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.