Sunday, 30 December 2012

Wells - CDS cancels

A few examples of circular date stamps (double circle, double-arc).  The first sheet shows two different examples where the size of the circles and the lettering are different.

A couple of CDS cancels on postcards with nice views.

And more modern usage from 1944  and 1955:

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

Wells - Numerical Obliterator & Duplex cancels

According to Parmenter Wells had three 4HOS or 3HOS cancels, a 4VOS cancel that has not been seen, a sideways duplex cancel and three varieties of 4VOD cancel.  This first sheet shows one of the 3HOS cancels.

An example of the sideways duplex cancel:

The next two sheets show examples of the first two varieties of 4VOD cancel - the differences are in the town cancel, one being "WELLS / SOMT", the other being "WELLS-SOMST".  The one missing is "WELLS / SOM".


Tuesday, 25 December 2012

Happy Christmas ...

... and a Merry New Year.

On the Christmas theme, here is a Mulready-inspired envelope produced "According to Act of Parliament" to commemorate the inauguration of Imperial Penny Postage in 1898, cancelled "BERLIN / ONT." on 25th December 1898.

This envelope is relatively rare but even rarer are the very small number of envelopes in green which were postally used.

Imperial Penny Postage allowed a letter to go anywhere in the British Empire for 1d (apart from Australia and New Zealand who didn't join until 1905).  In 1908 this was extended to the USA.  Below is a cutting from the New York Times of the time.

Berlin, Ontaria was renamed Kitchener in 1916 during WW I.

Sunday, 23 December 2012

Wells - Circular handstamps, Penny Post

I have one item from the Wells Penny Post that I haven't previously posted - with a boxed No.1 Receiving House handstamp.  The manuscript address inside says it is from Cheddar.

I've already posted about the Wells Penny Post - the boxed numbers in these pages are originally from the Bristol Penny Post (see post in November 2011).

An example of the "WELLS SOMERSET" circular handstamp in red from December 1840 - to indicate that postage had been prepaid (without using one of those new-fangled stamps).

And an example in black.

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Wells - Handstamps with Mileage

Again I've only got three different handstamps (there are five different ones with a mileage of 129 in the British County Catalogue, and one earlier one with a mileage of 123 miles) - firstly a straight-line "WELLS / 129" handstamp (in use 1811-1818):
And then a straight line "WELLS-S / 129" handstamp (in use 1820-1824):
And finally an undated circular cancel "WELLS / 129" (in use 1825-1829):
Missing are examples of "WELLS./S. 123" in use from1785-1787, "WELLS-S/129" in use from1802-1808 and "WELLS-S/129" in use from 1819-1820 (smaller than the handstamp shown above).

Sunday, 16 December 2012

Wells - Straight line cancels

I am somewhat hesitant about posting up material from the City of Wells after seeing the display on this subject at the recent S&DPHG meeting in October 2012 but here goes anyway.  I'll start with an introduction from Pigot's Directory of 1844.

The earliest handstamp I have is from sometime between 1716 and 1722 based on the handstamp.  The handstamp is albino, so hard to see, especially from a scan.  It runs vertically across the join about 1 inch (or 2.5 cm) from the left hand edge of the entire.  Apparently in those days the Postmasters had to supply their own ink so used little or no ink in the handstamps.

Two more fairly common straight line handstamps - "WELLS" and "WELLS / S" - the "/ S" was introduced to stop mail getting missent to Wellls-on-Sea.



Thursday, 13 December 2012

500 days blogging today

On a whim, I just checked how long I've been doing this blog - it's 500 days today since my first blog entry on Bath back on 1st August 2011.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Wellington - Skeleton, Triangular, Not Known cancels

Finally a few "odds and ends" handstamps for Wellington.  Firstly a "WELLINGTON / SOMERSET" skeleton cancel used on 2nd May 1912.  According to information from the S&DPHG Journal, this cancel was in use from 30th March to 6th May 1912.

Secondly a Printed Matter envelope cancelled with a Wellington "860" triangular cancel.

And finally a "NOT KNOWN / WELLINGTON SOMERSET" cachet used in 1986.

Sunday, 9 December 2012

Wellington - "Sample Post"

As well as the numeric obliterators and duplexes shown in my previous post, I have an example of a two-bar vertical obliterator used on a "Sample Post" envelope sent to Sweden.  This two-bar obliterator is not in Parmenter, but similar two and one bar cancels for Weston-super-Mare are annotated in Parmenter as probably being locally made wooden handstamps.

It is probable that the source of this "Sample Post" was Fox Brothers, who have been producing woollen and worsted fabric since 1772 and originated in Wellington.

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Wellington - Numeric Obliterator, Duplex cancels

Wellington had post office number "860".  According to Parmenter it had a number of 3-bar horizontal numeric obliterators, a 3-bar vertical obliterator, a sideways duplex, and 4-bar and 3-bar vertical duplexes.
Here are a couple of examples of the 3-bar horizontal obliterator.

An example of the sideways duplex.

A couple of examples of the 3-bar vertical duplexes.


Sunday, 2 December 2012

Wellington - Circular cancels, Penny Post

Wellington had an undated circular cancel, in use from 1830 to 1839.

The Wellington Penny Post was established in 1831, with three Receiving Houses at Sampford Arundel, Uffculme and later at Milverton, according to Oxley. Here is an example with an unboxed "No.1" from the RH at Uffculme.