A few Somerset "H"s - Hinton St George, Hinton St Mary, Huntspill

The entire below was sent from Hinton St George in June 1829 in the Ilminster Fifth Clause Post, with the boxed "No.3" handstamp of Hinton St George.

In more modern times, here are a couple of items from Hinton St George, the top in 1958 and the lower one from 1975, both with HINTON ST.GEORGE / SOMERSET" double circle double line-arc cancels.

Hinton St Mary is about 25 miles east of Hinton St George and is in Dorset.  The Parcel Post Label below was used in 1896.

Another "H", the envelope below has a "HUNTSPILL" double arc undated handstamp and was used below in July 1855.

UDCs part 2 - Huish Champflower, Huntspill, Isle Abbotts, Lympsham, Marston Magna, Martock

 More UDCs, mostly issued to villages, starting with "HUISH-CHAMPFLOWER" used in October 1859, currently the latest known usage in black.

... "HUNTSPILL" udc used in July 1855 ....

The "ISLE-ABBOTS" udc below is currently the only recorded example, while the example of the "WRANTAGE" udc is currently the earliest usage recorded.

The "LYMPSHAM" udc below is in blue, the first recorded example in blue.

The example of the "MARSTON MAGNA" udc below is undated, one other example is known used in December 1858.

The "MARTOCK" udc below in blue is also known in black.

Edington, Frome, Huntspill random postmarks

 In a fit of madness I have started a Catalogue of the Postal Markings of Somerset, available online at https://sites.google.com/site/sanddphg/home/somerset-ph-catalogue.  It does not include the marks of the post offices under Bristol which can already be found at https://sites.google.com/site/bristolphg/home/offices-under-bristol.  

This means that this blog can now contain any postmark from Somerset (& Bristol & elsewhere) that I haven't seen before or that has a new date - however poor or potentially boring an example it is !

Edington is a new Post Office to me ...

... while I did not have this particular Frome cancel.  To distinguish similar cancels I find the best approach is to scan the cancels, fiddle with one to make the background transparent and then overlay one on top of the other.  This can add a fair bit of time to processing a new cover.

The only postmarks I'd had from Huntspill previously were UDCs - here is a more modern one from 1960 - which I call a "double circle double blob" cancel.

UDCs #3 - Cross, East Harptree, Enmore, Huntspill

Continuing the UDC theme, this next sheet has two examples of the Cross UDC, from December 1827 and February 1838, spanning the first period of recorded usage.  From 1839 to 1840 Cross used a double arc dated handstamp, before reverting back to using its UDC from 1842 to 1850.

This next UDC is from East Harptree in June 1849, being another early serif-type UDC.

Enmore had two UDC handstamps, this example from October 1859 being currently the only recorded example of the second one which was issued in December 1855.

Below is the the latest known used example of the late format Huntspill UDC, from February 1859.

Main period sans-serif 25mm UDCs under Bridgwater

Of the 32 offices under Bridgwater that had main period UDCs issued (there were more than 32 different ones as some places had more than one UDC issued, and many are also known used in multiple colours), I have the following examples.

Blackford's UDC was issued in April 1853.  The example below from 13th May 1853 is the first known example.

Broomfield's UDC was issued in April 1853 and is known used from 1855.  The example below comes from November 1859 and may be the latest known usage.

Cannington's UDC was issued on 22nd May 1846 and was known used in black from November 1846 to May 1850 and in blue from October 1853 to August 1855.  The blue example below is from August 1859 and may be the latest use known.

Enmore's UDC was issued on 22nd May 1846 and is known used from February 1849 to October 1859.  The example below is from January 1852.

Huntspill's UDC was issued on 3rd September 1849 and is known used in black from September 1849 to April 1858, with a single example known in brown from February 1856.  The blurred example below is from July 1855.

Putsom's UDC was issued on 22nd May 1846 and was known used from the end of June 1851 to the end of July 1851.  The example below from January 1853 extends this usage.

West Quantoxhead's UDC was issued on 29th September 1851 and its usage was unrecorded in the 1992 catalogue.  The example below is from October 1851.