Skeletons - Bourton (Dorset), Bruton, Dulverton, Fivehead, and Lydeard St Laurence (Lawrence)

A skeleton postmark is a circular datestamp made up from loose metal type. Skeletons are brought into use when an office's handstamp is damaged, mislaid or being updated, usually for a short period, then returned to the Post Office stores for reuse.  

Here are a few skeletons, starting with a "BOURTON / WINCANTON SO" skeleton used in February 1909.  Bourton is in Dorset but came under Wincanton.  The skeleton is known in use from 9th February to 20th March 1909.

The "BRUTON / SOMERSET" skeleton below is known used between 31st August and 25th September 1926.
 

The "DULVERTON SOMERSET" skeleton below is only known used on 26th May 1911.

Skeletons were normally metal (with removable type) but there are also skeleton climax rubber cancels, as shown in the example below from Fivehead.  This skeleton cancel is only known used on 1st and 2nd November 1907.

Here is another rubber skeleton cancel, from Lydeard St Lawrence - the cancel is mispelt as Laurence.  The cancel is only known used on 11th December 1913.

Registered Mail - from Enmore, Evercreech, Glastonbury, Holcombe, and Ilminster

More registered mail from my pile, starting with Enmore in 1918, addressed to Bermuda "via New York".  The KGV registered envelope has a very distorted "ENMORE / BRIDGWATER" climax rubber cancel.

Back to the Rating Officer, Shepton Mallet with the next registered envelope from Evercreech in 1940.

Progressing alphabetically we get to Glastonbury in 1944 ...

... and then back to the Rating Officer, Shepton Mallet for Holcombe, Bath in 1940.

Finally here are a few registered items from Ilminster, starting with a registered envelope from 1966 addressed to the Chard Rural District Council.

For a fee the sender could get Advice Receipt, advice of delivery of a registered or recorded delivery as shown below from 1969 for an item addressed to Inwood Farm, Ashill, Ilminster and handled by the Ilminster post office.

The envelope below was sent registered air mail from Ilminster to Kenya in 1972.

Registered Mail - from Barrington, Batcombe, Berrow Corner, Ditcheat and Emborough

Here are a number of Registered items, arranged alphabetically starting with Barrington under Ilminster in 1947. 

Next, alphabetically in my pile of registered items, is Batcombe under Bath in 1939.

Berrow Corner came under Highbridge.  The envelope below is dated 1958.  Berrow Corner post office was replaced by Brent Corner in 1965.

Another registered item for The Rating Officer, Shepton Mallet, this time from Ditcheat in 1940.

Again, a registered letter to the Rating Officer, Shepton Mallet, this time an uprated registered envelope from Emborough under Bath in 1940, rather than a printed envelope.

More Coaching items

Here are a few more 'Coaching' items, associated with the transport of Parcels before the advent of a service from the Post Office in 1883.  This first item is a receipt dated 1st January 1887 on the reverse from the Three Cups Inn in Aldersgate Street.  The receipt advertises both Coaches and Fly & Slow Waggons.

The receipt below, dated 24th August 1822 on the reverse, is from the Cross Keys Inn, Wood Street, Cheapside and advertises "passengers and parcels being conveyed by mail, telegraph and other coaches to the principal sea ports, cities, commercial towns, and most fashionable watering places in the kingdom".

The receipt below dated 22nd April 1837 is also from the Cross Keys Inn, this time at Gracechurch Street, and advertises Well-Regulated 4-inside Coaches as well as superior Vans on Springs.  A major drawback to Coach travel was getting crammed into a too-small space as Coaches tried to maximise their revenue.

The receipt below dated 24th November 1838 was for the Administrators of the late Marianne Lady Musgrave who died in 1835 aged 31.

This next receipt is for Drewett's Original Waggon & Van Offices for the carriage of two packages dated 19th April 1843.

Parcels Post (2)

The Post Office had a monopoly on the transport of Letters and it was an offence for anyone "sending or delivering letters other than by the post", except for letters sent with goods by common carrier, or by private hands.

The legal letter below from 1798 was sent by parcel post on a coach, which would perhaps be of dubious legality.

The letter below in 1811 was definitely illegal, being sent part-way by parcel post (saving half the postage cost).  It also refers to another illegality, the writer being "disappointed of a Frank".

Parcels sometimes did not get sent as directed as shown in the letter below from 1816, when a parcel was omitted from the direct coach to Dereham and was sent to Norfolk instead with directions to be taken from there to Dereham.

Items also got omitted from parcels, as shown in the letter below from 1821 when the addressee is requested to send the Copies of Admission by the 'Expedition' if the writer does not pick them up directly (the 'Expedition' was the name of the coach).

Parcels Post (1)

The Post Office did not provice a parcels service until 1883.  Before then parcels went by Coach or, once they were established, by the Railway.

A normal practice was to send a letter by the post to warn the recipient of the parcel, and to make sure that someone collected it, as in the letter below from January 1792.

Parcels  sometimes got lost, as shown in the letter below which is in the same correspondence as the one above..

The letter below from 1799 gives thanks for the "flitch of fine country bacon".

 

... whilst this next letter says that a Basket of Game woule be very acceptable, giving directions of where to send it and asking for a letter to be sent whenever a Basket is sent.

Below is an example of a letter from 1821 warning the recipient of a small Basket containing a Cock Pheasant & Brace of Partridges.

Blossoms Inn, Cheapside

Blossom's Inn was a tavern, originally known as Bosom's Inn, which stood in Lawrence Lane in the City of London from the 14th century until 1855.  In 1331 it was the venue for a jousting tournament that lasted three days.  It became a substantial coaching inn and was used as a staging post by carriers of goods. Pickfords Travel Company based their London headquarters here in 1720.

In 1855, the lease was bought and it became the parcel depot of the Great Eastern Railway, before being renamed Blossom's Inn again in the twentieth century.  It has now been redeveloped.

Below is a receipt, dated 10th April 1820 on the reverse, for 1/6d carriage and 6d porterage.

 

Joseph Nicholson is recorded as the proprietor from at least 1811 to around 1823.

 

The receipt below, dated 2nd to 7th November 1828 on the reverse, is for Mr Brown's meals, drink and lodgings at Blossoms Inn, Tavern, & Hotel, proprietor F. Knowles.

 

The bill for 3rd November includes:

Breakfast (1/6d), Egg (3d), Dinner (9/-), Sherry (4/6d), Port (5/6d) Stout (8d), Cigars (1/-),
Tobacco (3d), Coffee (4/6d), Brandy (2/-), Gin (1/4d), Lodgings (1/4d), Suppers (3/-).

This totals to £1-13-10 for that day, which is about £154 in today's money [2024: 1/- = £4.56].
The total bill of £3-16-0 equates to just over £345 today.

 Here are some more flyers or receipts from Blossoms Inn:

Some Bristol Maritime items

Here are a few maritime items associated with Bristol, starting with a "PAQUEBOT / POSTED AT SEA" machine cancel from 1935.  This machine cancel is only known used from 1934 to 1936.

The cover below is from Bristol to a passenger on the Shanghai Pacific in 1936.  Any further information on the Shanghai cancel gratefully received !

I'm not entirely sure what happened to this envelope which ended up at the Bristol Returned Letter Branch in March 1943.  It appears to have been posted from Calcutta in May 1942 addressed to the Punjab.  The addressee appears to have finished their tour to India.

The Paquebot cover below went through Bristol in 1973. According to Ships Nostalgia she was completed in 1956 by Elsflether Werft A.G., Elsfleth/Weser for Reederei Robert Bornhofen, Hamburg

I think the ship was renamed HOLSTENWALL in 1971, TINOS in 1978 and broken up in 1979 in Pakistan.

The cover below was posted at sea on RMS "ST HELENA" and came through Bristol on its way to Oswestry in 1988.

Finally an example from 1970 with "MARITIME MAIL / BRISTOL" cancels.

Some Bristol Security Overprints

As an alternative to Perfins, some firms applied a security overprint for use on stamps used for receipts.  All of the examples below are from 1952 or early 1953. 

Maggs & Co. was a large department store on Queen's Road.

The South Western Electricity Board used to be Bristol Electricity before it was nationalised.

Below is an example of an impressed 2d duty stamp used by Bristol United Breweries.

The example below is from Bristol United Press Ltd.

And finally one from the South Western Gas Board in January 1953 along with some postal stationery from 1947.

"Stamp Inadmissable", 1938

The envelope below also has a Bristol Postage Due mark but for a somewhat different type of reason.  It was posted on 27th January 1938 bearing an 1880 Queen Victoria 1d venetian red stamp as well as a KGVI ½d.  The QV stamps was circled and marked "Stamp inadmissable", and the envelope was charged 2d postage due.

In 1901 Queen Victoria stamps that were earlier than the 1881 "postage and revenue" stamps were invalidated.  The remaining QV stamps were invalidated from 1st July 1915.