A couple more Ilminster items, starting with a postcard that was posted unpaid and received eight ½d bright orange postage due stamps. The date on the cancels is not readable but must be between May 1954 and September 1957.
I'm not sure why this postcard from August 1992 received an "ILMINSTER / SOMERSET" soft packet cancel with a telephone number included in the cancel.
Staying with Ilminster, here are a series of different oval Registered Ilminster cancels. The first two are "REGISTERED / 2 / ILMINSTER.SOMT" used in 1952.
The next one is a "REGISTERED / 1 / ILMINSTER.SOMT" cancel from 1953 ...
... while this last one is "REGISTERED / 1 / ILMINSTER. SOM." from between 1952 and 1956.
'Dulwich' cancels, double circle double-arc cancels, are so-called because they were first issued to Dulwich. Here are a couple of different ones from Ilminster, the first is from 1925-1926 ...
... and the second from 1937-1944. This second cancel has thicker and slightly longer arcs. The top envelope was posted on the first day of issue of the definitive stamps it bears.
Here are a couple of Ilminster Skeleton cancels, the first from November 1894. The Skeleton handstamp was applied on the reverse of the envelope when it was redirected from Ilminster to London.
This "ILMINSTER / SOMERSET" skeleton cancel was applied on December 1916, and is known in use from 13th November to 20th December 1916.
To go with the 1916 cancel, here is a paper cutting showing the Ilminster Post Office staff from the 1914-1918 period.
This post is to highlight some of the possibly lesser collected postmarks - the ones often applied to the reverse of envelopes. These were applied either when mail was sent (perhaps because the cancelling postmark did not have a date), or when it transitted an office, or when it was received. Similar postmarks were also applied to forms and receipts, for example for registered post.
The postmarks are often very similar, small single rings with the name of the post office. I've found that the only reliable way to distinguish them is to scan the postmarks and overlay them to check the geometry - how tall/short the letters are, how far round the cancel the lettering stretches, and where the lettering is positioned in relationship to the date and rim.
For comparison, a limited number of the postmarks are available in the Stamp Impression Books where they were registered on being issued, but unfortunately these are not all available as many were lost in a fire.
Here is a page of Ilminster single ring handstamps.
A "Too Late" handstamp was used when mail arrived at a post office too late for the mail coach, so that the addressee knew why the mail did not arrive earlier. Below is an example of the Ilminster "Too Late" handstamp in red, known used in 1844.
Hiton St George was in the Ilminster Fifth Clause Post from 1828 and used a boxed "No.3" handstamp. The example below is from April 1830.
Here is a letter written from Ilchester Gaol about an inmate who is being sued by a London wine merchant in June 1826.
This second item from Ilchester is addressed to Yeovil and has two "399." 3-bar vertical oval cancels (3VOS) and an "ILCHESTER" 20mm single ring dated November 1874. This appears to be quite a lot earlier than previous recorded examples.
