Barred Numeral Cancels - Flax Bourton, Hallatrow

Flax Bourton, seven miles WSW of Bristol, became an RSO in 1861 and was assigned post office number B44.  It had both 3-bar horizontal oval and 3-bar vertical oval cancels.

Hallatrow, 10 miles SW of Bath and 12 miles south of Bristol, was issued with post office number 011 in September 1878.  Here are two examples of the usage of its 3-bar vertical oval cancel.

Old Down

A trio of entires that feature Old Down, starting with 1819 in the Bath Penny Post with a black boxed "No.12" handstamp, written from Hallatrow.

Then from 1820 in the Wells Penny Post with a red boxed "No.12" handstamp, again written at Hallatrow.

And finally from 1840 an Old Down double-arc handstamp dated May 1840.

Main period sans-serif 25mm UDCs under Bristol

Bristol had 31 UDCs to its sub-offices, plus those in Gloucestershire.  Here are some examples (a few more somewhat later).

Bedminster had two non-seriffed UDC's.  The example below is from the second which was issued on 13th December 1849 and is known used from July 1850 to April 1857.

Chew-Magna's UDC was issued on 13th September 1847 and is known used in black from November 1847 to July 1856.  It is also known used in brown, red, and orange May 1848 to July 1856, though this variation may be the affect of colour ageing.  The first example below is in red from May 1848, followed by examples from January 1853 and June 1852.

Hallatrow's second UDC was issued on 8th August 1849 (a previous UDC was issued on 18th July 1849).

Close examination of the width of the "H" enables one to distinguish between the handstamps.  The S&DPHG catalogue identifies usage of the first handstamp from June 1850 to October 1852 in black, with a single example in brown from May 1856 - it needs to be investigated whether these are the first or second handstamps issued.  No usage is recorded of the second UDC.

The example below of the second UDC is from 25th June 1850, which is the earliest date recorded above for the first UDC.

The contents of the above entire are Life Assurance rates from the Sun Life Assurance Society.

St. George's, Somerset, also known as Easton-in-Gordano and not to be confused with St. George's in South Gloucestershire, had its UDC issued on 10th July 1849.  It is known used between July 1851 and August 1857.  The example below is from February 1852.

Pensford "001" and Hallatrow "011" Numeric Obliterators

On 21^st September 1878 a series of numeral handstamps of the 3VOS type was supplied as follows:

999   Paulton                       Recorded only as 'philatelic use'.

001   Pensford                     Few examples known 1883 - 1886.

006   Temple Cloud             Uncommon. Recorded 1879 to 1921 (philatelic).

008   Clutton                       One example known from 1890.

009   Farringdon Gurney      Not recorded used.

011   Hallatrow                   Very few recorded from 1879.

At this time these numbers were vacancies in the numerical list for England and Wales offices.

Why did these particular small offices need to cancel their mail ?  They were all on the route of the Bristol and North Somerset Railway line from Bristol to Radstock, opened in 1873. The handstamps were probably issued in anticipation of these offices becoming Railway Sub-Offices (R.S.O.s).   When this did not happen, the cancellation of mail ceased, if it had ever started. The few examples recorded are possibly for abnormal use.

Here are examples from Pensford and Hallatrow.