The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering correspondence; 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 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, having a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success of the experiment led to yet another four being set up on Guernsey, info now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly to date no universal pillar box design that we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and it was in 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the first included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, this area ended up being to be available in two sizes; a greater 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 up against the backdrop of which criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not a huge success so, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been used to today. It was 24 months prior to this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, 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 ten years.
For the population most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service never website before witnessed in Great Britain.