A few more Cs to be going on with, starting with one from (or associated with) Chard - a philatelic registered envelope from Chard Agricultural Show in 1958 with "MOBILE POST OFFICE No.3 / C" cancels dated July 1958.
Next a First Day Cover from Cheddar in March 1989, with "CHEDDAR / SOMERSET " cancels, and a Bristol registration etiquette.
And lastly a postcard from Chedzoy to Staplegrove, Taunton in September 1926 with a partial "CHEDZOY / BRIDGWATER" 25mm single ring cancel.
Happy Christmas !
At Christmas time the Ilminster scouts, like scout groups elsewhere, have provided a local Christmas post service, with boxes in local shops to collect mail to be delivered at weekends prior to Christmas. Here are a couple of sheets of mail with a variety of the stickers that were used. Unfortunately none of the items have any dates associated with them.
From February 1947, the Uk experienced several cold spells that brought ;arge drifts of snow, blocked roads and railways, causing problems transporting coal to power stations. There were severe restrictions and power rationing.
The card below is a weather report for March 1947 from Curland, about six miles south-east of Taunton, and says "344% of 18 year average - the wettest March ever.
Going through these four Bs in chronological order, here is an orange UDC from Butleigh in June 1854 that was proofed in December 1853;
.... a "BISHOPS LYDEARD / TAUNTON.SOMT" double circle double arc cancel from October 1949;
... a "BARRINGTON / ILMINSTER.SOMERSET" double circle double-arc cancel from March 1972;
... and finally "BAYFORD.WINCANTON / SOM." single ring cancels and a registration etiquette from September 1975.
A couple of sheets with UDCs, starting with Barton St David. Barton St David was under Taunton, then Langport RSO, then Somerton, then transferring back to Taunton in 1907. Itthen transferred to Somerton again in 1950, and was closed in 1989.
Here are two Climax rubber cancels, the first from 1906 when it was under Somerton and the second a skeleton rubber cancel from 1913 when it was back under Taunton.
This second sheet has a Climax rubber cancel from Bicknoller in 1906 (or 1908). It is very similar to the one that was issued in September 1891 but is very slightly different in the lengths of the words. There was a third cancel known used from 1900-1905.
Bourton in Dorset was in the Shaftesbury, Hindon, and then Wincanton Penny Posts. It is four miles east of Wincanton which became its Post Town before it came under Bath in 1855. It transferred back to Wincanton in 1908 and then became a Post Town in its own right in 1910. It transferred to Gillingham, Dorset in 1936.
These next sheets illustrate its postmarks while it was in some of the states above, starting with a cover from May 1833 which had been missent to Bourton rather than Bruton. It received a boxed "No.4" handstamp from the Shaftesbury Penny Post.
Next we have a cover from August 1857 where Bourton is under Bath, with a black "BOURTON" UDC and a "BATH / 53" sifeways duplex cancel.
Finally here are two covers from 1907 and 1909. In the first it should be under Bath but there is no indication of the post town as the postcard just has a "BOURTON / DORSET" single ring cancel. The second postcard has a "BOURTON.WINCANTON / SOMERSET" single ring showing that Bourton is under Wincanton. Its postal address would be Bourton, Wincanton, Somerset even though Bourton was in Dorset.
I've just started collecting parcel post labels - there seem to be a lot of different type with very small differences between them, and I haven't quite got my head round them yet. Here is one from Axbridge in May 1920, franked with 9d for a 3-7 lb parcel.
Here are a couple of postage due covers from Bristol with red charge marks and cachets, the first from September 1934 has a red framed "Closed contrary / to regulations/ 134" cachet and was charged 2d postage due.
The second cover was posted with only a halfpenny stamp in March 1946, receiving a red framed "TO PAY / POSTED / UNPAID" cachet (not strictly true) and was charged 4d.
Based on the address written on the POW card below, P.O.W. Camp 124 was Bedminster Camp at Ashton Gate, Bristol. The card below was sent in February 1947.
Some items from Bridg(e)water (the "E" in the middle appeared and then disappeared from cancels) starting with an undated Bridgwater "123" 3-bar vertical oval single cancel (3VOS). No dated examples of the Bridgwater "123" 3VOS are known, while undated examples are normally on newspaper wrappers. The "123" 3VOS was issued in March 1877.
Next, going back to 1820, here is an example of the large "No.1" receiving house handstamp in the Bridgwater Penny Post. The entire below originally came from Bridport to Bridgwater for 9d and was then redirected to Bath for a total of 1/5d. It looks like the postal route was not very direct, firstly going Bridport - Dorchester - Shaftesbury - Sherborne - Taunton - Bridgewater (about 90 miles), and then Bridgewater - Wells - Bristol - Bath (about 60 miles).
Next is another redirected item, from 1880, going from Bridgwater to Haselbury Plucknett, and then reposted to Weston-super-Mare. The stamp has a "W.B." perfin from W.Brice, a solicitor.
Finally an item that was compulsorily registered in 1893 because it contained coin. As such it was charged a special registration fee of 8d, as described by the label fixed to the reverse of the envelope.
Following the last two Bath-related posts, here is another one - starting with a Krag error. One of the two Krag heads has been made up wrongly so it says "BATHI" rather than "BATH" and a year of "6" rather than "16".
The next one is a 1926 returned letter that has a large "S" perfin, from Stone, King & Wardle, solicitors of Bath.
A quick diversion into confectionery with an advertising envelope posted in 1932.
And finally a Souvenir of the Unveiling of the Stafford Smith Memorial Table in June 1935 in Bath. Stafford Smith launched the Stamp Collectors' Magazine in 1863. (I wonder if it is still there ?)
Here are two examples of Postage Dues in Bath that are most probably as a result of rises in the postage rates. First is a Newspaper Rate example from September 1956 when the rate went up on 1st June 1956.
Secondly is a Printed Paper example from November 1961 when the rate went up on 1st October 1961.
This item of Postage Due from Bath is in my view a post office error, and may not have been collected.
The newspaper below was franked with ½d, but had a 1d postage due cachet applied at Bath because it was over 2oz. I think the clerk was treating the newspaper as printed matter which was ½d for up to 2oz and 1d for 2-4oz. There is no indication that the 1d postage due was collected at Bridgwater.
Here are a few more items associated with Coaching, starting with a receipt from 1827 for the carriage of a parcel from Alnwick to London by the Mail Coach.
One person who ran many coaches was Joseph Hearn. Here is an undated receipt (c.1828) for carriage and porterage. There was a hierarchy of coaches from Royal Mails (fastest), Post Coaches (the post meant that it changed horses), Caravans, and Fly and Slow waggons (which would have gone at around walking pace).
Here is a picture from c.1832 of a Waggon (probably a Fly Waggon).
If you had a private Carriage you needed a Carriage licence, which in the early 1900s also covered motor-cars. The licence below from 1923 was for a carriage with less than four wheels and was issued in Ilminster to a farmer.
Here are a miscellany of marks on green Post Office receipts from the 1970s, from Croscombe, Easton (Wells), Meare, Mells, Walton, Wedmore, Westbury-sib-Mendip, Westhay and Windmill Hill (Glastonbury).
Modern postmarks from village or Town sub-offices are difficult to find as there are few occasions when a local post office will cancel or handstamp things.
According to the British County Catalogue published in 1990, Merriott's UDC was issued on 11 December 1840 and is only known in GPO archives.
Below is an example of the UDC from March 1844. The example is quite degraded, which would imply to me that the handstamp had had some use prior to the example below.
Hatch [Beauchamp] was in the Taunton Penny Post, using an unboxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp from 1838 to 1845. Below is a wrapper where the unboxed "No.13" handstamp was used in the Ilminster Penny Post rather than the Taunton PP, going direct from Hatch Beauchamp to Ilminster to Chard.
Here are a collection of postmarks from Ilminster, starting with an example of the "ILMINSTER / 143" mileage mark from June 1824.
Next is a nice example of the "ILMINSTER" single arc datestamp and red maltese cross from August 1840
And finally a range of Ilminster postmarks on piece ranging from a double circle double arc cancel from 1933 ('Dulwich' after where that type of postmark was first issued), to a self-inking datestamp (SID) from 2004.
It is difficult to find examples of postmarks from Town Sub-Offices (TSOs) - there were relatively few occasions when a TSO needed to use a postmark, once they no longer needed to postmark mail going through their office.
Here are examples of two TSOs - East Reach, Taunton andStation Road, Ilminster.
Stoke(-sub-Hamdon) had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp in the Ilminster Penny Post and the Yeovil Penny Post. It was also in the South Petherton Penny Post but with very small volumes. In the Report of the Select Committee of 1838, Stoke had an annual revenue of £42 in the Yeovil PP, £3 in the Ilminster PP, and £1-5s-7d in the South Petherton PP.
Here are examples in the Ilminster PP (1832 & undated) and in the Yeovil PP (1832). The first entire was written at Martock (2 miles north of Stoke) to Kingsbridge, while the other two examples were written at East Stoke and addressed to Chard. The natural route from Stoke-sub-Hamdon to Chard would seem to be via Ilminster rather than via Yeovil.
The Exeter "E" bishop mark is known used from 1798 to 1713. Like the Bristol "B", it consisted of 365 different handstamps, one for each day of the year and carved out of boxwood. The example below has "IV" and "8", being for 8th June.
The envelope below, posted from Two Mile Hill in October 1900 has an interesting address:
"the golden Cupid jewellery shop at the end of old market st against the photo place, Bristol"
Here are two Parcel Post Labels for Horton in 1902 and 1911.
In the first PPL from 1902, Horton is "Under Ilminster", while in the second PPL from 1911, Horton is "Horton, Ilminster" but is now "under Taunton".
The reason for this change is probably that in 1907 Ilminster post office changed from a Head Office to a Salaried Sub-Office (a Crown Office that is not a Head Office).
The two PPLs have examples of two of the six different climax rubber cancels issued to Horton and used between 1891 and 1918. In all of the cancels Horton is under Ilminster - I wonder if there was a different hierarchy of post offices for Parcels compared to Letters ?
