Continuing ... Bruton, Buckland St Mary, Burnham-on-Sea, Clevedon - and Combe Sydenham

The entire below dated December 1774 has a very clear "BRUTON" handstamp, at the start of its known usage.

The "BRUTON / 142" boxed mileage mark on this entire dated 1808 is much less clear, being towards the end of its known usage from 1802 to 1809.

A Certificate of Posting from Buckland St Mary in 1992 is probably one of the few ways to get a local postmark.

The novelty card below, from Burnham-on-Sea in 1925 was charged postage due as it was treated as a Letter because there was more than the sender's name and address on it.

The envelope below went as Printed Matter and received a "170" triangle machine cancel.  The slogan cancel was in use from 26th October to 1st November 1961 and 1st to 28th November 1962, and there is a pencil annotation on the reverse of "11/62" which matches the second period of usage.

And finally a picture illustrating Combe Sydenham, Somersetshire in 1765.  Combe Sydenham did not have a post office.

UDCs part 1 - Aller, Bedminster, Blackford, Blagdon(Bristol), Burnham

Here are a number of examples of UDCs (UnDated Circular handstamps) which were typically issued to village post offices, starting with one from "ALLER" in April 1859, currently the only recorded example.

The "BEDMINSTER" udc below is from January 1850.  A second udc was issued to Bedminster in 1857.

The "BLACKFORD" udc was issued in 1858 - the example below is currently the earliest known usage.

Below is an example of the "BLAGDON" udc issued under Bristol.  Another Blagdon, near Taunton, was also issued with a "BLAGDON" udc.

The entire below has a faint "BURNHAM-SOMST" udc, used in March 1848.

Burnham "581" 3VOS in 1881 - and Not a Radstock "358" 4VOS c.1877

Below are a couple of less common barred Numeral cancels, the first a Burnham "581" 3-bar vertical oval single cancel used on a registered envelope in 1881 - there is a second strike on the reverse.

The second is a "358" 4-bar vertical oval single cancel on an undated piece.  This is not from Radstock as Radstock did not get allocated Post Office number 358 until later.  "358" was previously allocated to Eardisley in Herefordshire.  The cancel is c. 1877 based on another example known.

Enhanced Compensation, Chestnut Terrace, Burnham-on-Sea 2002

Below is a Parcels certificate of posting for which Enhanced Compensation for up to £100 has been paid (by four 10p stamps on the reverse).  The certificate is cancelled with a "CHESTNUT TERRACE BURNHAM ON SEA / SOMT" single ring handstamp dated December 2002.

Burnham-on-Sea three colour franking

This nice cover below bearing a three colour franking is from Burnham-in-Sea to Switzerland in July 1921.  3d paid for the UPU surface mail while the additional 6d paid for the overseas Express service (typically just the delivery from the local delivery office to the addressee.

Burnham Parcel Post

Below are two Parcel Post labels for Burnham (later Burnham-on-Sea).  The top one is of the first type of Parcel Post labels issued:  it is headed "PARCELS POST." rather than the later "PARCEL POST.". 

Both parcel post labels have interesting stamps, the top with a 6d on 6d lilac from 1883 and the second a 4½d green & deep bright carmine jubilee from 1887.

Miscellany - Burnham, Chard, Chilthorne Domer, Radstock, Twerton, Walton !

Herewith a miscellany of acquired items, starting with a colourful envelope from the Burnham Gas Company, sent in August 1930.

The next item is a Parcel Label with undated "CHARD" target cancels from c.1887-1897.

... a "CHILTHORNE DOMER / YEOVIL" climax rubber cancel from September 1912, currently known in use from this date to August 1914.

Going back to the heating theme, here are a couple of advertising meter marks from the Coal Board from 1960-61.

... a Post Office receipt with a "TWERTON-ON-AVON" datestamp from August 1885 ...

... and finally a non-postal receipt for money from the Somerset Floods Relief Fund from Walton in 1892.

UDCs #2 - Burnham, Cheddar, Churchill (& Langford & Street), Upper Clevedon

Continuing with UDCs, here is an example of the "BURNHAM-SOMST" UDC from November 1844.

This next sheet has three examples of Cheddar UDCs, from August & October 1848 and March 1849. The earliest Cheddar UDC was issued in December 1847, with later ones issued in March and April 1851.

... and here is a postcard from the period illustrating Cheddar.

This cover from March 1852 has three UDCs for the price of one, with UDCs from Churchill in blue, Langford in black and Street also in black, being the earliest recorded blue Churchill UDC and black Langford UDC.

This entire has a nice example of the Upper Clevedon UDC from the middle of June 1843 - not quite the earliest known which is from 1st June.

Selection of Skeletons

Here are a random selection of Skeletons (should that be a "rattle" of skeletons ?) that I have recently acquired, starting with Burnham from November 1916 ...

... Chard from January 1925 ...

 ... Shepton Mallet from August 1916 ...

... Street and Glastonbury (two skeletons for the price of one !) from December 1921 ...

... Trull from June 1909 ...

... Uphill from March 1913 ...

... and Wincanton from March 1920.

Remaining early serif UDCs - Bruton, Castle Cary, Burnham Somst., Keynsham, ....

There are 32 more early (serif) UDCs, mostly of 29 mm diameter.  Of these, three - Burnham (March 1836), Merriott (December 1840) and Totterdown (March 1844) - are not known used.  Two others, Chewton-Mendip (March 1840) and Saltford (November 1842) have only a single example known.

Bruton's 26 mm diameter UDC was issued on 22nd June 1835.  The partial example below may be the latest known, from 2nd January 1850.

Castle Cary's UDC was registered in the Steel Impression Book on 22nd June 1835 and is known used from March 1836 to June 1846.  The example below is from June 1844.

Burnham Somst.'s UDC was registered in the Steel Impression Book on 7th January 1840 and is known used from 1842-1849  (not to be confused with the earlier March 1836 UDC which has no known examples).  The example below is from October 1843.

Keynsham's UDC was registered in the SIB on 30th March 1840 and is known used from 1840 to August 1849 in black, with a single example known in red from June 1843.  The examples below are from July 1848.

To be continued ....

Burnham Skeletons

Burnham had a number of skeleton postmarks.  Here are three examples of "BURNHAM / SOMERSET" which was in use between 26th August and 31st December 1909.

And here is an example of "BURNHAM / SOM" from 2nd May 1910, a previously unrecorded period of use.

Burnham RSO and SO

Burnham was made a Railway Sub-Office (R.S.O.) on the 1st December 1887.  This lasted until August 1905 when the terminology in the Post Office changed and it became a Sub Office / Post Town (S.O.).

The double circle double-arc RSO cancel was in use beyond 1905 and then the cancel was altered to remove the "R." of "R.S.O.".

On the 2nd August 1917 Burnham became Burnham-on-Sea.

Burnham

Burnham was in the Bridgwater Penny Post from 1835.  It is thought that it may have had the "No.7" Receiving House cancel - the example from my earlier post may show this as the entire below was written in Burnham, although it then went via Cross and Wells rather than directly to Bridgwater.  Bridgwater was Burnham's Post Town until 1887.

Here is a fairly faint UDC handstamp used in 1843, of the form "BURNHAM-SOMST". An earlier UDC with just "BURNHAM" in a serif font was registered in 1836 but has not been seen outside of the Post Office Archives.

A double-arc dated "BURNHAM" cancel was registered in September 1849.

Skipping over a number of cancels that I don't have, we eventually get to the squared circle cancel.  I've already posted up a couple of example here, but this is a nice clear example from 1900.