The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main means of delivering a letter; senders can be necessitated to bring their mail with 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 make his presence known, the Bellman might 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 placed on Jersey to try out the new system.
The success with the experiment resulted in a different four being placed on Guernsey, info now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was clearly as yet no universal pillar box design that were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as 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, this area would have been to be for sale by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such 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 just a huge success and thus, a further design came in 1879. This final design could be the one that we are acquainted with today. It commercial letterboxes was two years just before 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 while using green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that this structures were to tough to locate this can camouflage, it had been agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for decade.
For the populace in particular, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to some delivery service no time before witnessed in Great Britain.