Wednesday 10 October 2012

North Petherton

North Petherton and South Petherton in the county of Somerset are not adjacent, being about 20 miles apart by road:
According to Wikipedia (!), "North Petherton" may be derived from the area's location to the north side of the River Parrett, from the Latin Paradæ 'barge' and from the Old English nor tun.  "South Petherton" may come from the Old English word Pared meaning boundary and the Saxon word ton meaning settlement, forming ’Paredton’, with Sudperetone being the southern tun on the river Parrett (shown below).

Here is an entire sent in 1812 from Bristol to North Petherton and then redirected to London.
The entire has a manuscript "7" crossed out (Bristol to North Petherton is about 36 miles which would have cost 7d between 1812 and December 1839) and a manuscript "11" for the final charge of 11d for the total of 186 miles from Bristol to North Petherton to London.  The reverse has a red "BRISTOL / 122" handstamp that was only in use from 1812 to 1813.

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