The postcard below, from Cheddar to Watford in 1932, was posted without a stamp and incurred 2d postage due. The "2 D / TO PAY / 134A" charge mark was applied in Bristol - this charge mark was previously only known from 1934 to 1948 in red and in 1948 in black.
The envelope below from Wincanton to Bourton, Bath was sent with a Revenue rather than a Postage Stamp in July 1881.
The printed letter below was sent out from the Tithe Commissioners for England and Wales in November 1844.
The Tithe Commissioners were a three-man government board established in London under the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 71) to oversee the conversion of traditional agricultural tithes into monetary payments.
For centuries, English and Welsh farmers were legally required to give one-tenth of their crops and livestock (tithes "in kind") to support the local parish church and clergy. By the 1830s, this system caused immense social unrest, religious disputes, and economic inefficiency. The commissioners replaced physical collections of grain or animals with a variable annual cash payment known as a tithe rentcharge. This monetary value was index-linked to the national seven-year average price of corn, wheat, oats, and barley.
The commissioners deployed a network of local Assistant Tithe Commissioners and surveyors across the country. They conducted a comprehensive Tithe Survey to map out every single parcel of titheable land in England and Wales. The commission favoured voluntary agreements between landowners and the church. However, if a parish could not agree on valuations, the Tithe Commissioners had the legal power to step in, resolve the boundary or financial disputes, and issue a compulsory Tithe Award.
The contents of the printed letter were as shown below:
Following the 1840 postal reforms, government departments paid for mail through centralized bookkeeping accounts with the Post Office rather than using physical stamps.
Departments did not purchase stamps over a post office counter. Instead, the General Post Office calculated the weight and volume of the mail generated by each department and charged the total to that department's parliamentary budget.
To indicate that a letter belonged to a state department and its fee was accounted for, the GPO introduced distinctive, specialized "Official Paid" handstamps. These circular, oval, or crown-designed marks were usually struck in red ink to show the postal clerks that the item was prepaid via government accounts and should be processed without delay.
Departments printed custom stationery, official envelopes, or paper wrappers featuring the department's name. The signature of an authorised clerk or official was often required on the front corner of the envelope to certify that the contents were strictly for state business, preventing the personal mail abuse that plagued the pre-1840 system.
The letter was sealed with the seal of the Tithe Commission, and initialled on the front.
Although from 1840 postage was determined purely on weight, packages exceeding three feet simply could not fit into standard leather mail sacks or the secure, locked mailboxes built into Royal Mail coaches.
Following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, the Tithe Commission was tasked with mapping every single parish in England and Wales to convert traditional crop tithes into monetary payments. The resulting tithe maps were extraordinarily detailed, large-scale drawings. When rolled up for transport, these heavy parchment maps routinely spanned over three feet in length.
Because the official Royal Mail framework could not handle these oversized parcels, the Tithe Commission relied on ordinary commercial stagecoaches or passenger coaches. Commercial passenger coaches possessed large exterior boots, under-seat storage, and roof racks meant for heavy passenger luggage, making them perfectly suited to handle long, awkward tubes containing maps.
The sheet below gives the 'Special Rules as to Packing based on the Regulations in the Post Office Guide" as of June 1933.
I have just acquired an example of a new Wambrook rubber climax cancel - new as in newly recorded as it was used in March 1923. This cancel is "WAMBROOK / CHARD / SOMERSET" with "CHARD" in serif text.
This next one is the first recorded example of the "MOSTERTON / CREWKERNE" rubber climax cancel that was issued in December 1896. It was recorded in the Stamp Impression Book but had not been previously seen. It was used here in February 1913.
The receipt below from James Rudman of Bristol has a 1d lilac with a "J R" perfin with a manuscript cancel dated 6th October 1896.
It is 50 years since the Postal Mechanisation study Circle (PMSC) was established in 1976. This was celebrated with a special event cancellation produced at Bristol.
The undated sheet below is probably from a GPO Ledger and shows the mileages for the Exeter to Chester Cross Post and the Portsmouth to Bristol Cross Post.
According to R.C. Tombs in his book "The Bristol Royal Mail", a new branch post was established from Bristol & Bath to Salisbury in 1740, and by 1772 the posts at Salisbury included mail from Bristol three days a week; mail from Postsmouth also came three days a week. It wasn't until 1798 that a "Long" coach was established that went from Portsmouth to Bristol in one journey.
It is possible that the Ledger sheet above was created fairly soon after John Palmer's introduction of Mail Coaches in 1784, when detailed schedules had to be drawn up for the new coaches. The mileages on the Exeter - Chester post are to the nearest quarter of a mile, perhaps the level of detail required for coach contracts.
The wrapper below was sent Free from Bideford ("BIDDE / FORD") via Exeter to Monmouth in October 1783.
The filing note says "Col Orchard" which is probably Colonel Paul Orchard, who became MP for Callington in the following year, 1784.
The wrapper below was sent to Rothschild's in London in 1834 from Batavia. Batavia was an imperial Dutch port city that eventually, after two centuries of Dutch occupation, became the capital of the Dutch East Indies, and is now present-day Jakarta, Indonesia.
The letter had a framed "FALMOUTH / Ship Letter" applied in error, was overstruck with a framed "INDIA LETTER / FALMOUTH", and then had a second India Letter handstamp applied. It arrived in London on 2nd October 1834. The India Letter handstamp indicated that a reduced rate of postage applied compared to the standard ship letter rate.
Here is another miscellany, starting with a skeleton from Cannington in May 1903. Unfortunately the postcard has a filing hole through the year in the Cannington pstmark but the year can readily be een from the Bridgwater cancel.
This next postmark is a Climax rubber cancel from East Chinnock in 1911 - this is the first recorded example. There was also an earlier rubber cancel issued in 1889 but no usage of that has been recorded.
