The commercial printed matter postcard below was sent from Clevedon to the Bristol Tramway Co. Ltd., Beach Road, Weston-super-Mare on 12th February 1954 saying that their representative hopes to call on Thursday 18th February.
On the reverse are a list of the items available, a number of which are still favourites today.
Here are a number of items to or from Chard, starting with an entire dated August 1822 from Jersey with a very nice "JERSEY" scroll handstamp.
The next item is from April 1859 being an entire from Chard to Little Winsor then redirected to Misterton.
Thirdly here is a registered item from the Chard Agricultural Show in 1960, with Mobile Post Office cancels and a Chard registration etiquette.
Lastly is an unused pre-addressed envelope for immediate despatch to the Chard & Ilminster, Somerset, Dorset & Devon Advertiser. The paper was established in 1874.
Castle Cary used skeleton cancels in 1910 (January to March), 1912 (February), 1913 (June to August) and 1914 (June to July). Here are examples of all four skeleton cancels. 1910 and 1913 are 36mm diameter, the 1912 one is 31½ mm, and the 1914 skeleton is 31mm.
The entire below was sent from Etchilhampton near Devizes to 'Bath Easton' in August 1833, with a Devizes Penny Post handstamp and an unboxed "No.9" handstamp. According to "Wiltshire and its Postmarks" by Dr John Siggers, the No.9 handstamp is known from Marden & Cannings from 1837 so this is an earlier use. Etchilhampton is about 2½ miles from All Cannings.
The cover was then redirected to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, receiving a boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp from Batheaston, a "Bath / P.y Post" handstamp, and a partial "BATH" double-arc handstamp dated 26th August 1833. This is a later use of the "No.2" handstamp than has previously been recorded.
Here are ten covers from Bath, starting with one from Bath to Antwerp in 1737. It appears to have been prepaid 4d and has been stamped with a circular "PD" handstamp that indicates it was paid to its destination.
Next is a free cover to London dated May 1802, with a straight line "BATH" and a nice red London "FREE" mark.
Next a c ouple of "TOO LATE" covers from 1821 and 1824. The "TOO LATE" indicates the covers were posted too late for the day's post.
Moving on, here is a One Penny Newspaper wrapper with a Bath "53" 3-bar vertical oval cancel.
Perfins were used to prevent employees stealing stamps and getting money back from the post office. The large "S" below was used in 1902 by Stone, King, Stone & Thomas, solicitors in Bath.
The Telegram below was used in 1918 to indicate that the sender was going to arrive by GWR in the envening. It has a "BATH / T" single ring cancel which was normally used on telegrams.
Here is another perfin from 1952, a "BCC" used by the Bath City Council - in this case by the School Medical Department.
And finally from 1960 an envelope addressed to a patient at St Martin's Hospital Bath but marked as "Not Known", opened and sealed by the Post Office to get a return address.
Here are a series of Bath covers that failed to get delivered. The first two, from 1884, have manuscript "Gone no address" on the front and 1-22 postman initials on the reverse. ["Postman" rather than "Letter Carrier" because it's after the introduction of a parcels service in 1883]
The next cover from 1896 has a framed "Not to be found / 53" cachet, ....
The cover below has a nice pair of Missent marks. The entire was posted from Bath to Huntingdon in July 1844 and should have gone via London from Bath - instead it was initially sent to Bristol with a "Missent / to / Bristol" cachet.. and then was missent back to Bath with a "Missent to / Bath" cachet with "back" insert in manuscript. It then went (correctly) to London and on to Huntingdon, taking an extra two days.
Following on from the previous post covering Ashill UDCs, here are a number of examples of further cancels starting with another example of the late format "ASHILL" UDC from January 1860.
The next cancel from 1932, on a Fire Insurance renewal, is an "ASHILL / ILMINSTER.SOMERSET" double circle double arc cancel ...
... and a better example from August 1947 on a postcard.
Finally here is an "ASHILL / ILMINSTER.SOMERSET" double circle double line-arc handstamp from August 1994. The post office closed in 2002.
As previously noted here, Hatch Beauchamp was in the Ilminster Penny Post as well as the Taunton Penny Post. Here is another example dated April 1839 of a letter from Hatch [Beauchamp] to Chard with the Hatch unboxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp and the "Ilminster / Penny Post" handstamp.
