Refund of postage for letter to MP, 1830s

Below is a Post Office receipt for postage incorrectly charged on a letter from Bristol to Joseph Neeld, the MP for Chippenham from 1830 to 1856.

See here for the entry on Joseph Neeld  in the History of Parliament website.
 

Help Bristol - Salute the Soldier - May 13-20th 1944

 The item illustrated below is an unused paper bag for the "Salute the Soldier" week in Bristol.  During periods of WW II each county was set a target of money to raise and local civic leaders were presented with plaques as a reward for the fund raising efforts.

The government had an initial campaign launched in September 1940 known as War Weapons Weeks – which was a drive to replace the materiel lost at Dunkirk.  The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated War Weapons Weeks was £456,861,000, equivalent to about £26.1 billion in 2024. Warship Week was launched in October 1941, and in summer 1942, the government had a smaller campaign for British Army equipment known as Tanks for Attack: the amount realized from this campaign was not separately recorded.  The following year was the RAF's turn and Wings for Victory Week was launched in March 1943.

Building on the success of the earlier campaigns, a large military event was held at Trafalgar Square in London in March 1944 to raise money for field hospitals and other military equipment under the new Salute the Soldier campaign.  Bristol held its event in May 1944.  The amount realised in the weeks specifically designated Salute the Soldier Weeks was £628,021,000, equivalent to about £35.8 billion in 2024. 

Postage Dues when posted without a stamp; Postal Fiscal

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 was also sent without a stamp from Glastonbury and Street to near Canterbury in 1970.

The envelope below from Wincanton to Bourton, Bath was sent with a Revenue rather than a Postage Stamp in July 1881.

The passing of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1881 merged the systems for postal and fiscal accounting.  The act explicitly stated that "stamp duties of one penny may be denoted by postage stamps, and vice versa".  From 1st June 1881, unused, existing 1d Inland Revenue stamps (which were previously meant only for taxes, receipts, and documents) became legally authorized for use as regular postage on mail. These are known as postal fiscals.  The 1d lilac, issued on 12th July 1881 was inscribed "Postage and Inland Revenue" and was valid for both sending a letter or paying a tax duty.
 

The Tithe Commissioners for England and Wales

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. 

Parcel Post Packing Regulations June 1933

The sheet below gives the 'Special Rules as to Packing based on the Regulations in the Post Office Guide" as of June 1933.

Note the rules for Game:  "Game posted without covering, i.e., with a neck label only, will, however, be accepted, but only if the label is securely tied and if (i) the game is fresh and dry, (ii) no liquid is likely to exude, and (iii) it is not so "high" as to taint other parcels."

New Wambrook rubber climax cancel, and first example seen of Mosterton (Dorset) rubber climax cancel

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.

Wambrook has had four recorded rubber climax cancels; below are examples of the first ("WAMBROOK / CHARD", known 1911) and third ("WAMBROOK / CHARD /  SOMT", known 1922-1923) recorded cancels, the second is of a similar format to the first but has smaller text for the "CHARD" and is only recorded used in 1915.

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. 

James Rudman perfin, 1896

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.

One of the products that James Rudman produced was Stainoleum.  Below is a picture of a glass bottle that used to contain it.  Stainoleum was a brand of oil varnish stain used to colour and protect floors and furniture.

50th Anniversary of the Postal Mechanisation Study Circle

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.

 

GPO Ledger with Cross Post mileages for Exeter to Chester and Portsmouth to Bath & 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.

Prior to the establishment of the first Cross Post from Exeter to Bristol by Joseph Quash in 1696, the Postmaster of Exeter, mail from Exeter to Bristol had to go via London (up one Post Road and down another).  The cross post road was extended to Chester in 1701.

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.
 

Free Wrapper from "BIDDE / FORD" via Exeter to Monmouth, 1783

The wrapper below was sent Free from Bideford ("BIDDE / FORD") via Exeter to Monmouth in October 1783.

The cover is franked "Morgan" which could be either John Morgan, MP for Monmouthshire, or Charles Morgan his brother, MP for Breconshire.

The filing note says "Col Orchard" which is probably Colonel Paul Orchard, who became MP for Callington in the following year, 1784.