The Development of your Letterbox
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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main strategies to delivering correspondence; senders can be necessitated to get their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and ring a bell.
It was in 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to understand the newest system.
The success from the experiment resulted in one more four being installed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing on the mainland since 1853.
However, there were to date no universal pillar box design that we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, plus it was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the lamp would have been to be available by 50 percent sizes; a read more larger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop of which criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not a huge success therefore, an extra design came in 1879. This final design will be the one in which we are familiar with 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 well-liked colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints the structures were to difficult to locate because of the camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for about a decade.
For people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.