The event with the Letterbox

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 take their mail to your 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 was at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to try out the new system.
The success with the experiment resulted in an additional four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland as of 1853.
However, there were up to now no universal pillar box design in which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and yes it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp was to be accessible by 50 percent sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop for these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not just a huge success and thus, a further design started in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we are used to today. It was here two years prior to this how the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in with the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that this structures were to hard to locate because of their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately decade.
For the population at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.