A bit of Glastonbury

A few covers from Glastonbury now, starting with an early straight-line "GLASTON / BURY" from December 1772.

Next another (different) straight line "GLASTON / BURY" from June 1801.

Glastonbury had a Penny Post; Street had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp - here is an example from August 1830.  It was originally charged as a single letter (10d plus the penny post) but was spotted by an inspector (red crown handstamp) and charged as a double letter (1/8d plus the penny post).

Shapwick had an unboxed "No.3" receiving house handstamp as shown on this entire date October 1837.

Ashcott was receiving house "No.1" - here is an example from February 1839.

Use of the penny post receiving house handstamps continued beyond the abolition of the local penny posts in 1840.  The boxed "No.2" handstamp from Street can be seen here on a cover from July 1844.  This was before Street was issued with a double-arc undated handstamp (udc) in January 1848.  Glastonbury was using a "311" barred numeral cancel from April 1844.

A number of Glastonbury "311" barred numeral cancels were issued - below is an example from January 1857 - probably the second of the three rather than the third as written up.

The example below from August 1859 would have been the third type of "311" cancel.

Vertical oval barred numeral cancels were in use from 1872.

Blue Ashcott UDC 1853, with multiple coloured handstamps

 Here is another example of colourful handstamps - the entire below has gone from Pedwell near Ashcott, where it received a blue Ashcott UDC, to Worcester, where it received a red cds in 1853.  In between it picked up yellow or orange transit marks at Glastonbury and Bath.

Ashcott UDC in black and in blue

The "ASHCOTT" undated circular handstamp (UDC) was issued on 8th January 1848 under Glastonbury.  It is known used in black and in blue.

 

Aishcott [Ashcott] and Bridg(e)water

This first entire dated May 1799 is from "AISHCOTT" (later Ashcott) to Wiveliscombe, with a straight line "BRIDGEWATER" handstamp known 1799-1801.

Switching to the Bridgwater Penny Post, this next cover from Kilve has a large framed "No.1" handstamp, known in use at Nether Stowey. The cover is dated September 1814 inside.

It is not known where the unboxed "No.2" handstamp was used in the Bridgwater Penny Post.  This entire dated July 1840 was written at Bardon near Williton.

"AISHCOTT" handstamp, 1800

The entire below has a circular undated "AISHCOTT" handstamp, unrecorded in the British County Catalogue.  The dealer I bought it from at Stampex (Autumn 2014) did have another cleaner (but much more expensive) example from a similar date.

The documented "ASHCOTT" handstamp is known used from 1812-1834 (according to the BCC).

Glastonbury Penny Post

Courtesy of a fellow member of the S&DPHG, here are some scans of items from the Glastonbury Penny Post.  More information on the Glastonbury PP will be appearing in a future S&DPHG Journal.
Receiving House No.1 was at Ashcott.

Receiving House No.2 was at Street.

Receiving House No.3 was at Shapwick.  According to the BCC there is also a boxed "No.3 handstamp.

No examples of a "No.4" handstamp have been found but it is believed that it was at Walton.

Receiving House No.5 was at Butleigh (or maybe a nearby Baltonsborough). The known examples of this handstamp are evenly split between the two places.  Information in the Post Office Archives implies that the Receiving House was set up in Butleigh but with the land between the two villages liable to flood and with the River Brue inbetween it seems unlikely that either village would use the other's Receiving House. Perhaps the messenger took the "No.5" handstamp with him or it was applied at Glastonbury on his return ?

Initial Steps - How to Write Up the Material

I like to have a "house style" so that my material is written up consistently.  It makes for a nice looking display at a local Society meeting.  On the other hand I'm not interested in Exhibiting, so do not need to be ultra-precise on how I show things.

I normally display my stamp collections on reasonably heavy (100 gsm) white A4 paper and use glass clear A4 pockets to put the pages in binders for storage, and for display at a local Society meeting. I see no reason to do anything differently for Postal History.

I've written up my stamp collections using Word and again see no reason to change this.  Using "View - Header and Footer" one can insert things like borders and headings into the standard layout for a page, so I end up with a fairly plain style, with a ruled border around the edge and a heading at the top left, either "SOMERSETSHIRE" or the name of a major Post Town (eg. "BATH").

The other major thing I setup (having learnt from past experience) is a separate directory on my PC to hold the write-ups, and I decide to create an initial set of documents to at least hold the more minor places - so I've got files for A, B, C....U/V, W, Y.  No "Z" because I haven't found anywhere in Somerset beginning with Z, and I merged "U" and "V" because I only found one possible place beginning with "V".

Here's an example (click on the image to expand it):