Some Taunton Penny Post items

Taunton also had a Penny Post but not as large as Bristol's.  It was originally a Fifth Clause Post but converted to a Penny Post quite soon.  The item below has the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp used a Monksilver and dates from July 1817.

The boxed "No.3" receiving house handstamp was in use at Torre.  The Norwich Union Insurance form below was sent in August 1825.

The free front below has an unboxed "No.5" receiving house handstamp which is thought to be from Bicknoller.  The date looks like 1830 but unfortunately the address is indecipherable.

The entire below from April 1833 has unboxed handstamps from Trull ("No.8") and Blagdon Hill ("No.9").

The Penny Post handstamp continued to be used after the introduction of the uniform penny post.  The entire below is from Creech St Michael and has an unboxed "No.11" receiving house handstamp.

Combe St Nicholas (1924), Blagdon Hill (1945) and Minehead (1948)

Here are a trio of ordinary postal items, starting with a postcard from Combe St Nicholas to Ilminster in April 1924.

Next is a rainfall report postcard from Blagdon Hill (for Westcombe, Culmhead) to Bridgwater in September 1945 - "Very catchy weather for Harvesting" with lots of rain.

The final item is a First Day Cover sent registered within Minehead in July 1948.

Blagdon under Bristol, Blagdon Hill (Blagdon under Taunton)

Confusingly there used to be two different post offices in Somerset called 'Blagdon', one under Bristol and one under Taunton.  The one under Taunton was renamed 'Blagdon Hill' in 1902.

All of these examples are from Blagdon under Bristol, except for the last which is from Blagdon Hill (under Taunton).  The first example is a cover sent from Blagdon to Shaftesbury with a "BLAGDON.SOMT" single ring from May 1865.  One can tell it is from the Blagdon under Bristol because the cover goes via Bristol.

By 1908 the handstamps read "BLAGDON / BRISTOL".

The top cover below was addressed to 'Nr Blagdon, Taunton' in 1921 but was missent to Blagdon under Bristol.

By 1967 Blagdon had a 'Dulwich' handstamp (a double circle double-arc "BLAGDON /BRISTOL" handstamp).

Below is an example of the Blagdon parcel post facsimile handstamp, dated 1974.

This last example shows single ring handstamps for "BLAGDON HILL / TAUNTON" from 1906 and 1908, both from after when the Blagdon under Taunton was renamed in 1902.