P.O.W. Camp No.124, Ashton Gate

 Based on the address written on the POW card below, P.O.W. Camp 124 was Bedminster Camp at Ashton Gate, Bristol.  The card below was sent in February 1947.

There was a nearby camp, Camp 6A, at Ashton Court, in use between 1939 and 1948.  Camp 124 at Ashton Gate was later, as was Camp 124a at Bedminster.  These may have been replacements for Camp 6A.

Bridgwater miscellany: Undated 3VOS, large No.1 Penny Post, Redirected Perfin, Compulsory Registration

Some items from Bridg(e)water  (the "E" in the middle appeared and then disappeared from cancels) starting with an undated Bridgwater "123" 3-bar vertical oval single cancel (3VOS).    No dated examples of the Bridgwater "123" 3VOS are known, while undated examples are normally on newspaper wrappers.  The "123" 3VOS was issued in March 1877.

Next, going back to 1820, here is an example of the large "No.1" receiving house handstamp in the Bridgwater Penny Post.  The entire below originally came from Bridport to Bridgwater for 9d and was then redirected to Bath for a total of 1/5d.  It looks like the postal route was not very direct, firstly going Bridport - Dorchester - Shaftesbury - Sherborne - Taunton - Bridgewater (about 90 miles), and then Bridgewater - Wells - Bristol - Bath (about 60 miles).

Next is another redirected item, from 1880, going from Bridgwater to Haselbury Plucknett, and then reposted to Weston-super-Mare.  The stamp has a "W.B." perfin from W.Brice, a solicitor.

Finally an item that was compulsorily registered in 1893 because it contained coin.  As such it was charged a special registration fee of 8d, as described by the label fixed to the reverse of the envelope.

A bit more Bath (Krag error, Perfin, Advertising & Stafford Smith)

Following the last two Bath-related posts, here is another one - starting with a Krag error.  One of the two Krag heads has been made up wrongly so it says "BATHI" rather than "BATH" and a year of "6" rather than "16".

The next one is a 1926 returned letter that has a large "S" perfin, from Stone, King & Wardle, solicitors of Bath.

A quick diversion into confectionery with an advertising envelope posted in 1932.

And finally a Souvenir of the Unveiling of the Stafford Smith Memorial Table in June 1935 in Bath.  Stafford Smith launched the Stamp Collectors' Magazine in 1863.  (I wonder if it is still there ?)

Bath Postage Dues ... due to postage rate rises

Here are two examples of Postage Dues in Bath that are most probably as a result of rises in the postage rates.  First is a Newspaper Rate example from September 1956 when the rate went up on 1st June 1956.

Secondly is a Printed Paper example from November 1961 when the rate went up on 1st October 1961.

Bath Newspaper Postage Due from 1880

This item of Postage Due from Bath is in my view a post office error, and may not have been collected.

The newspaper below was franked with ½d, but had a 1d postage due cachet applied at Bath because it was over 2oz.  I think the clerk was treating the newspaper as printed matter which was ½d for up to 2oz and 1d for 2-4oz.  There is no indication that the 1d postage due was collected at Bridgwater.

 

Further items associated with Coaching

Here are a few more items associated with Coaching, starting with a receipt from 1827 for the carriage of a parcel from Alnwick to London by the Mail Coach.

One person who ran many coaches was Joseph Hearn.  Here is an undated receipt (c.1828) for carriage and porterage.  There was a hierarchy of coaches from Royal Mails (fastest), Post Coaches (the post meant that it changed horses), Caravans, and Fly and Slow waggons (which would have gone at around walking pace).

Here is a picture from c.1832 of a Waggon (probably a Fly Waggon).

If you had a private Carriage you needed a Carriage licence, which in the early 1900s also covered  motor-cars.  The licence below from 1923 was for a carriage with less than four wheels and was issued in Ilminster to a farmer.

Miscellany on PO receipts from 1970s

 Here are a miscellany of marks on green Post Office receipts from the 1970s, from Croscombe, Easton (Wells), Meare, Mells, Walton, Wedmore, Westbury-sib-Mendip, Westhay and Windmill Hill (Glastonbury).  

Modern postmarks from village or Town sub-offices are difficult to find as there are few occasions when a local post office will cancel or handstamp things.

Merriott Undated Circular handstamp (UDC) used in 1844

According to the British County Catalogue published in 1990, Merriott's UDC was issued on 11 December 1840 and is only known in GPO archives.

Below is an example of the UDC from March 1844.  The example is quite degraded, which would imply to me that the handstamp had had some use prior to the example below.

Hatch Beauchamp in the Ilminster Penny Post

Hatch [Beauchamp] was in the Taunton Penny Post, using an unboxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp from 1838 to 1845.  Below is a wrapper where the unboxed "No.13" handstamp was used in the Ilminster Penny Post rather than the Taunton PP, going direct from Hatch Beauchamp to Ilminster to Chard.