The event in the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main strategies to delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to get their mail to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to understand the newest system.
The success of the experiment triggered a different four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland as of 1853.
However, there were to date no universal pillar box design with which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was in the discretion of local authorities, also it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main 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 by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was from 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 so, another design arrived 1879. This final design is the one in which we have been familiar with 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 here 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 with ease. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, individuals were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.