Wells - Straight line cancels

I am somewhat hesitant about posting up material from the City of Wells after seeing the display on this subject at the recent S&DPHG meeting in October 2012 but here goes anyway.  I'll start with an introduction from Pigot's Directory of 1844.

The earliest handstamp I have is from sometime between 1716 and 1722 based on the handstamp.  The handstamp is albino, so hard to see, especially from a scan.  It runs vertically across the join about 1 inch (or 2.5 cm) from the left hand edge of the entire.  Apparently in those days the Postmasters had to supply their own ink so used little or no ink in the handstamps.

Two more fairly common straight line handstamps - "WELLS" and "WELLS / S" - the "/ S" was introduced to stop mail getting missent to Wellls-on-Sea.