Sunday 22 July 2012

Glastonbury - pre-1840

According to the British County Catalogue the earliest Glastonbury two line handstamp was in use from 1772.  The earliest I have are the fairly common straight-line handstamps with mileage (135) in use from 1822 to 1836.  There is also a rarer handstamp with a mileage of 134 miles to London (in use from 1811-1820).

Firstly an introduction taken from Pigot's Commercial Directory of 1844:
 Then a map from c.1888.
A couple of entires with "GLASTONBURY / 135" handstamps:
  Glastonbury had a Penny Post.  According to Oxley the Receiving Houses were Street, Ashcott, Shepwick, Walton, Kings Weston and Butleigh, the last of which he assigns as No.5.  The entire below from Street has a boxed "No.2" handstamp - it is probably that Street was No.2 and Ashcott was No.1.

No comments:

Post a Comment