Entire from London to Taunton Castle, 1699

The entire below was sent from London to "William Harvey at the Castle in Taunton Somersetshire" in November 1699.  William Harvey was the Clerk of Taunton Castle and looked after the Taunton Deane estate.

The entire has a large "S" in a circle handstamp from a Letter Receiver in London, but who this was has not been identified.
 

Wellington Parcel Post Labels, including for Egerton Burnett's Special Private Post Office

A Parcel Post service was introduced in Great Britain on 1st August 1883 following UPU agreement in 1880.  The following sheets show some Parcel Post Labels for Wellington ("SOM." to distinguish it from Wellington in Shropshire), starting with one from November 1883 when the service was called the Parcels Post.

The next two Parcel Post Labels are from around 1895, ...

... and a final example from the same period.

These next two Parcel Post Labels are for Egerton Burnett's Special Private Post Office, the first used in May 1895.

 

and the second in March 1896.

 

 

Somerset "L"s - Langford, Langport, Long Ashton

Continuing with the alphabetical scheme, the Airgraph below was sent from Langford to the Pioneer Corps, C.M.F. [Central Mediterranean Force] in November 1943.

Moving a bit earlier, the entire below is from Langport to Ilminster and is dated February 1777 - this extends the known usage of the "LANGPORT" handstamp by a year.

Below is a postcard from Chicago to Long Ashton, with a receiving handstamp dated 27th July 1928.  I'm not sure why it would have a receiving mark ?

 

Some Somerset "I"s and "K"s - Ilchester, Ilton, Kingsbury, Kingston St Mary

A couple of Somerset I"s starting with an "ILCHESTER" single ring cancel from August 1929, ....

... and a couple of registered envelopes from Ilton under Ilminster in 1947 and 1956.

Moving on to a couple of "K"s, here's a registered envelope from Kingsbury Episcopi in February 1940.  The "Episcopi" part of the village's name means "of the Bishop" in Latin.  It refers to the fact that the village belonged to the Bishop of Bath and Wells and not the nearby abbey at Muchelney.

The registered envelope below is from Kingston St Mary, near Taunton, sent in June 1922.  The first part of the village name comes from the kings settlement having belonged to the kings of the West Saxons before being ceded to the Bishop of Winchester as part of the manor of Taunton Deane, with the church's dedication being added in the 20th century.

Messengers, Highways, Mileage

The Somerset & Dorset Postal History Group are meeting today at Hornsbury Mill, Chard.  The agenda includes a display on "Coaching" - below is the earliest item on display, a Royal Messenger's Warrant dated June 1588.

The Warrant is for £5 expenses for a journey from London to Guildford, Lewes, Winchester, Southampton, Dorchester, Ilchester, Bristol, Exeter and Lostwithiel.  £5 is equivalent to about £1,700 today.  For those of us that cannot read the script, below is a transcript !

One of the key aspects of delivering the mail was the state of the roads.  The highways had to be maintained by the parish and were paid for by a Highways Rate.  Below are examples of two receipts for the Parish Highway Rate in July 1843.

Up until the introduction of Uniform Penny Postage in April 1840, postage was charged based on mileage, as shown on the item below.  However, based on the Population column which shows the population in 1841, this mileage table was produced after postage rates ceased to be based on them.

Some Somerset "Sh"s - Shepton Beauchamp, Shepton Mallet, Shipham, Shuttern

The Post Office had some difficulty delivering this envelope from Shepton Mallet to Pilton in May 1895 before it was returned to Budd & Spire, Glastonbury with a violet "Undelivered for reason stated" cachet.

The Post Office was also unable to deliver the under franked envelope below in August 1959, this time because it was refused - it was also charged 3d for return.

 

The items below come from the similar sounding Shepton Beauchamp, some 25 miles south-west of Shepton Mallet near Ilminster.  They are commercial printed postcards for Manor Farm.

Shipham is 8 miles east of Weston-super-Mare and comes under Bristol based on the "SHIPHAM / (Under Bristol)"Parcel Post Label below .  However the "SHIPHAM / WESTON-SUPER-MARE" climax rubber handstamp dated 30th April 1898 in manuscript suggests that it came under Weston-super-Mare.

Below is a cover from Shipham in December 1974 where the handstamp is "SHIPHAM / WINSCOMBE SOMERSET", showing it under Winscombe with psot going via Weston-super-Mare.

The registered covers below are from Shuttern, Taunton which had sub-office number 4.  The bottom cover has the 75th Anniversary of the UPU set but was sent a day late so was not a FDC.  The registered envelope is marked "senders excess" which suggests that the extra postage did not pay for extra insurance.

A few Somerset "H"s - Hinton St George, Hinton St Mary, Huntspill

The entire below was sent from Hinton St George in June 1829 in the Ilminster Fifth Clause Post, with the boxed "No.3" handstamp of Hinton St George.

In more modern times, here are a couple of items from Hinton St George, the top in 1958 and the lower one from 1975, both with HINTON ST.GEORGE / SOMERSET" double circle double line-arc cancels.

Hinton St Mary is about 25 miles east of Hinton St George and is in Dorset.  The Parcel Post Label below was used in 1896.

Another "H", the envelope below has a "HUNTSPILL" double arc undated handstamp and was used below in July 1855.

Frome

Some items from Frome (can be quite difficult to search for items from Frome as sites often give you those with "from" as well), starting with an item to Florence in January 1895.  The item has a hexagon Tax mark with a "L" below - which may be for a Late Fee.

The two postcards below, from 1907 and 1909, have Frome 1d charge marks, the top one because it was unfranked and the bottom card because there was material on the front and the Post Office treated it as a Letter.

Finally an Air Mail postcard sent from Bombay to Frome in June 1941 bearing a triangular censor mark.

Some Bristol Postcards

Black Boy Hill, the upper part of Whiteladies Road, was named after the Black Boy Inn which stood on the hill until 1874.  The Inn was named after Charles II.  Whiteladies Road was also named after an Inn.

Here are a set of Royal Mail postcards featuring Mail Carriers built in Bristol.

The final two postcards feature the Bristol Trams and also the Clifton Rocks Railway.

Bristol - 1990s, 2000s

More Bristol, starting with two uses of "REPORTING OFFICE / BRISTOL" oval cancels from 1998 and 1999, with different sizes of "BRISTOL".

The envelope below was sent at Christmas 2002 according to a pencil annotation on the reverse, but should have been culled so as not to receive a machine cancel.

The postcard below received a commemorative cancel for the Clifton Suspension Bridge in February 2006.

Both envelopes below, from Bristol to the USA in March 2018, have "THE GALLERIES BO BRISTOL" self-inking datestamps with reduced form IMP machine cancels.

And finally the envelope below received the slogan cancel for the Coronation of King Charles III in May 2023.  Unfortunately you can't see the cancel because of the stamps and the poor printing.