Bristol Penny Post - Redland & Westbury-on-Trym

More Penny Posts from the Bristol suburbs, both of which were issued with two line script Penny Post handstamps in 1839.  Redland was Receiving House No.3.

 

Westbury-on-Trym was Receiving House No.4.

 

Bristol Penny Post - Hotwells & Clifton

Hotwells and Clifton in Bristol had the No.1 and No.2 Receiving House handstamps respectively until they swapped over in 1832.

Starting with Hotwells, the first two entires are for "No.1" and have two different Bristol Penny Post handstamps, while the last two are for "No.2" with the dated Bristol Penny Post handstamp.

 

 

 

Moving on to Clifton, the first four entires are for "No.2", the first two having red Bristol Penny Post handstamps (in use 1814-1821).

 

 

 

See the next sheet for details on John Tod.

The next two entires are from the "No.1" period where Clifton had a unique oval handstamp.  The first entire is also to John Tod like the previous one and is followed by details about a "Writer to the Signet".

 

Bristol 5th Clause and Penny Posts

Although Bristol is not in Somerset, it had Fifth Clause and Penny Posts that extended into Somerset as well as into South Gloucestershire.  The map below shows the Bristol local posts c. 1830.

I'm afraid that I've suffered from "scope creep" so the next posts are going to cover Bristol posts in both Somerset and Gloucestershire - I've covered some of these before so there will be a small amount of repitition.

I'll start with the 5th Clause Posts - Bristol had two, one to the south to Axbridge from 1805 to 1816 that I've already covered briefly here, and one to the north to Thornbury.

Here are some entires from the 5th Clause Post to Thornbury, the 2nd and 3rd sheets showing two different Bristol 5th Clause Post handstamps.  The Bristol Postal History Group have identified five different 5th Clause handstamps that were only used on the Thornbury ride.

 

 

Yeovil

Here are a couple of items of Yeovil postmarks that I've recently obtained, starting with a nice red Maltese Cross on a 1d black dated 31st December 1840.

Secondly a Half Penny printed stationery card with a Yeovil 4VOD (four-bar vertical oval duplex) cancel from March 1899.

Wellington Penny Post

More recent acquisitions, from the Wellington Penny Post.  Wellington's Penny Post had three Receiving Houses, at Uffculme in Devon (No.1), Sampford Arundel (No.2) and later at Milverton (though this then very soon became a sub-office of Wellington and Taunton).

The handstamp for the Wellington Penny Post was "Wellington.Com / Penny Post", the "Com" probably being a misprint of "Som" for Somerset.  This handstamp is known in use from 1831 to 1835.  Here are a number of examples of this handstamp.

 

 

Recent acquisitions continued ...

A piece from Shepton Mallet with a nice "Too Late" handstamp.

A few pieces from Taunton, starting with a very nice Fifth Clause Post handstamp with a "No.2" Receiving House stamp - Monksilver with No.2 in the Taunton 5th Clause Post.

Then an ordinary machine cancel from 1941, judging by the message from someone from South Wales having a holiday in Somerset.

And finally, an envelope sent Express Delivery in 1962. I hadn't realised there were so many different sorts of Express Delivery service.

Some more recent acquisitions

Firstly a straight-line "CHARD" from 1768, with an early bishopmark.

Then a couple of items from Crewkerne, firstly a maltese cross from 1844 (just before the numeral obliterators came out in May 1844).

And an item from Haselbury, under Crewkerne, with a "Haselbury / Penny Post" handstamp that looks brown, but is probably just black.

Finally a faint "ILMINSTER" circular handstamp, with 10d postage erased and replaced by 1/8d, with a nice red Inspector's mark.

A Bristol Postman, c. 1868

The portrait below is of a Bristol postman, taken in about 1868 by C. Voss-Bark - in this case Cyrus Voss-Bark rather than Conrad (who was a writer and a correspondent for the BBC and the Times who died in November 2000).

C. Voss-Bark had his studio at Strathearn House, Clifton and his card says that he was a "Photographer to Her Majesty The Queen and H.R.H. The Prince of Wales".  Cyrus Voss Bark was born Cyrus Herbert Voss-Bark in 1848 in Leicestershire and he died in 1913.

I discovered the photograph amongst some lots purchased at a recent auction;  there is no indication of the subject's identity.