The Newspaper wrapper below was sent within Yeovil and received a degraded Yeovil "929" vertical oval cancel. It may be a copy of the 3-bar vertical oval cancel issued in 1880.
It is possible that the newspaper wrapper contained the Western Gazette, published in Yeovil.
The card below has been sent from Wells to Birmingham by Marsh & Adlam, English Cheese Factors, Wells in 1895. They had premises at the Old Passenger Station, Priory Road, Wells.
The Parcel Post Label (PPL) below is for "WEDMORE (WON) / (Under Weston-Super-Mare)", and was for a parcel of 2-3 lb. The KEVII 5d stamp is cancelled with a Bristol roller cancel.
On the Parcel Post Label, "WON" is the telegraphic code for Wedmore, and the post office came under Weston-super-Mare. This PPL however was cancelled at Bristol - it seems that the parcel service operated differently from the ordinary mail.
Torre was in the Taunton Penny Post until it was reorganised in 1828 following the completion of a new turnpike road between Taunton and Minehead through Crowcombe.
The entire below was from North Petherton, which was in the Bridg(e)water Penny Post from 1834 but did not appear to have a Receiving House handstamp. A partial and very faint North Petherton UDC may just be seen on the front.
The entire was missent to Glastonbury as can be seen from the manuscript on the front.
The item below, a printed notice from Somerset House about getting probate, was missent via Frome rather than via Sherborne, and was handstamped with the "FROME / 115" handstamp (SO 495, in use 1813-1819) with the mileage not struck. This was probably deliberate to indicate to the recipient where the letter had been if it was late.
The cover below incurred an 8d postage due on transit at Bristol. An "8d / 134" cachet is in the Steel Impression Book in June 1911, and a different mark is known used in 1952, but this mark is a new one.
The cover is a home-made novelty, being pieces of card imbedded front and back on a piece of green leather. It was franked with a US 2c stamp (equivalent to 1d), which was the international postcard rate from October 1891. However the British Post Office regulations said that postcards had to be on card so it was treated as a Letter, and it was over ½ oz, so the correct rate was 5d (rather than the international single letter rate of 2½d or the international postcard rate of 1d). This gives a deficiency of 4d (5d minus 2c or 1d) hence a charge of 8d for double the deficiency.
Stage Coaches were licensed from 1776 onwards. Here is an example of a Supplementary licence from 1834. The licence is A3 size and has been stamped with a one shilling embossed stamp.
It was not easy running a Stage Coach, as evidenced by this pair of subpoenas from the Stamp Office in London.
This first one, from September 1828, was for overloading the Coach, having 7 or 8 school boys inside when he was only licensed for 4. The Stage Coach license stated how many inside and how many outside passengers they were allowed.
Stage Coaches also had to pay ½d per mile duty based on the number of miles they went with passengers. The subpoena below is to recover arrears of Stage Coach Duty.
