The Development from the Letterbox

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main means of delivering a letter; senders would be necessitated to take their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from your community. In order to distinguish himself, and also to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It is at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the newest system.
The success in the experiment led to yet another four being installed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there is up to now no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp was to be for sale by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size more info for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of these criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to generate another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not a huge success so, an additional design came in 1879. This final design could be the one in which we have been used to today. It was 2 years ahead of this that the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the most preferred colour option was green in order to blend in with the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for about ten years.
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 to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.

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