Bristol Ship Letter handstamp, September 1913

 Below is a late use of the Bristol Ship Letter handstamp, used in September 1913.  From then, Ship Letter handstamps are only known used from Avonmouth as the larger ships of the time could no longer make it up the Avon to Bristol harbour.

"We [love] Lead-Free" Slogan Cancel in Green in 1986 - and some consequeences

In 1986, to celebrate lead-free petrol, the "We [love] / LEAD-FREE" slogan was used in Green ink.  There were a number of consequences of this, as can be seen in the examples below.

Two Slogan Cancels for the Price of One, Taunton 1993

The envelope below received two different 'Postcode' slogan cancels in 1993.

Somerset County Gazette Slogan 1986

The Somerset County Gazette is a weekly tabloid newspaper sold through most of Somerset except for the eastern and north-eastern parts; it’s mainly distributed around Taunton, Minehead and Wellington. It was founded in 1836 and is published by Newsquest (South West) Ltd, who are collocated with the newspaper’s editorial offices in Taunton.  It comes out on Thursdays and appears in two editions: a Main edition and a West Somerset edition.

A Slogan cancel celebrating 150 years of the Somerset County Gazette was used in 1986 in Taunton.  For the first month of use the wrong daters were used on the First and Second class mail.

Here are a few postal newspaper clippings that may have been from the Somerset County Gazette  in 1989.

Bristol Parcels, from 1902 and 1941

Here are a couple of Parcel Post items from Bristol, starting with two parcel tags used by Hudden & Co., a tobacco company, in 1902 to go to Hamburg.  The stamps are cancelled with a "BRISTOL" undated roller cancel.

This second page shows part of a parcel wrapper, sent registered from Bristol to Bude with a franking of 1/7d.  One cannot tell how much of the franking is for the Parcel post and how much for the Registration fee.  The wrapper is franked with six GVI 3d stamps with "JFT / B" perfins.

Yet More Coaching Ephemera !

Here's some more coaching ephemera, starting with a receipt issued in March 1838 from the Castle & Falcon, Aldersgate Street, London.  Unlike earlier receipts this has a reference to an Act of Parliament that stops carriers being liable for damage or loss of parcels and packages worth more than £10 unless they had been entered and paid for.

The next two items relate to the estate of the late Marianne Lady Musgrave who died in 1835 aged 31, leaving three daughters under the age of ten.  One is from 1838, the second from 1841.

Strip Map from Bristol to Worcester, c.1780

The map below shows the road from Bristol to Worcester, and is possibly by Kitchins in c.1780.

It appears that by the time the Bristol Fifth Clause post started to Thornbury that the road had moved to the west, probably close to where the current A38 runs.

 

Even More Coaching Ephemera

Here are some more coaching ephemera, starting with a couple of Porterage receipts from the White Horse Inn, Fetter Lane, London.

Here's another Porterage receipt from the White Horse Inn, but this time from Cripplegate.  It's on an announcement that the Colchester & Ipswich Waggons are moving from one inn to another.

 The receipt below is for Carriage as well Porterage, from the King's Head Inn, Borough.

The next item is a trade card from the Ram's Head Inn & Posting House, Disley (about 7 miles SE of Stockport on the A6).

The final item is an entire from Ramsgate in 1827 with coaching contents - Mrs Harvey asking why she hadn't heard that her items had been delivered.

The Electric and International Telegraph Company, 1863

The telegram below was sent in 1863 from Bristol to London using the Electric and International Telegraph Company.

The Electric Telegraph Company was the world's first public telegraph company, founded in  1846.  It merged with the International Telegraph Company (ITC) in 1854 to become the Electric and International Telegraph Company.

The company was nationalised by the British government in 1870 under the Telegraph Act 1868 along with most other British telegraph companies.  The Telegraph Act 1870 extended the 1868 Act to include the Isle of Man Telegraph Company and the Jersey and Guernsey Telegraph Company, but excluded the Submarine Telegraph Company and other companies which exclusively operated international cables.

The Electric Telegraph Company formed the largest component of the resulting state monopoly run by the GPO.

See also http://somersetph.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-electric-and-international.html.