Notes

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main ways of delivering a letter; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail with 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 make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were set up on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success in the experiment triggered a different four being set up on Guernsey, one of these now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. wall letter box began appearing around the mainland as of 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and it was at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the lamp was to be for sale in 2 sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not 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 create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not just a huge success and thus, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we have been familiar with today. It was a couple of years prior to this that the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most well-liked colour option was green so that you can blend in with the green British pastures. However, following a barrage of complaints that this structures were to difficult to locate this can camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as 10 years.
For the people 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, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.
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