The "STOKE UNDER HAM" handstamp below is used in March 1806 at the start of the period it is known (1806 to 1826). I have one other example, used at the end of the usage period in 1826 but haven't yet seen any examples from the intervening period.
Moving on, here are a couple of Undated Circular cancels (UDCs), starting with one for Southgate Street, Bath dated July 1855.
The entire below was sent from London to Luxborough near Dunster in November 1771. It has a triangular London Penny Post Paid handstamp, a red manuscript "Harwood", a London bishop mark for 17th November and manuscript "4" and a smaller "5" for postage.
Another miscellany starting with an illustrated envelope from the United Ancient Order of Druids sent from Wiveliscombe to Taunton in 1905.
... and secondly a Newspaper wrapper for the Weston-super-Mare Gazette with an unclear postmark, maybe 1937.
Here are a few more items associated with stagecoaches starting with a letter from 1820 talking about getting a seat in the Mail and having correspondence directed to Batson's Coffee House, which was opposite the Royal Exchange in Cornhill.
Private coaches had to be licenced as shown by the licence below for a Carriage with less than four wheels dated April 1924.
Travelling by road was not free, one had to pay for Turnpike roads. Here is a ticket for the Highgate Archway turnpike in London (though outside London when this was in use). It is not clear what the hieroglyphics on the ticket mean, it could relate to the date or to the class of ticket (or both).
Here are a few Bristol Penny Post items starting with a wrapper sent in October 1828 from Westbury-on-Trym to Gloucester General Lunatic Asylum bearing a clean boxed "No.4" receiving house handstamp used at Westbury-on-Trym.
Here are the contents:
The mourning wrapper below originated in Henbury where it received the unboxed "No.51" receiving house handstamp before going through Westbury-on-Trym where it received an unboxed "No.4" handstamp in 1836. It was sent free by Robert Blagden Hale, the MP for West Gloucestershire. It was free in the General Post but had to pay the local Penny Post.
The cover below was from Pensford to the Thorncliffe Iron Works near Sheffield in March 1824 and has a partial boxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp used at Pensford at this time. A little later in 1827 the boxed "No.13" handstamp moved to Brislington while Pensford used a boxed "No.14" handstamp.
The entire below also bears a Bristol Penny Post handstamp in 1847, seven years after the local Penny Post had been abolished with the introduction of the uniform penny post in 1840. By 1847 the numbered receiving house handstamps had been replaced with undated circular handstamps (UDCs), with the entire below bearing UDCs from both Olveston and Rudgeway.
The next few posts will be rather random (so what's different ?), starting with a cover from Bergen to Bath in 1955, bearing a "NORWEX" machine cancel. The Norwex International Stamp Exhibition was held in Oslo from 4th to 12th June 1955. The envelope was underfranked.
Next on this unconnected set of items is an envelope with an unusual form of address, from Bishop's Stortford to Studland Bay in October 1907.
Here are a trio of skeleton cancels starting with one from Evercreech in 1922. The cancel was only known used on Christmas Eve so may have been brought into service to cope with increased workload.
And the last of the trio is from Langport. It was also only used for one day, on 8th August 1924.
Landowners had a statutory duty to provide labour to repair roads, as evidenced by the summons below from May 1811. It also has some notes on the reverse dated 1816 relating to repairs, including a reference to paying for 13 pints of Ale.
Giotto was a spacecraft mission in 1986 to flyby and study Halley's Comet. The primary subcontractor was British Aerospace based in Filton, Bristol. A number of different special event cancellations were used, on 18th February, 13th March and 14th March 1986.
