Christmas Post in 1837: Wrington to Norfolk

The entire below was sent postage paid on Christmas Eve 1837 and transitted London on Christmas Day.  The contents are about letting part of a house.

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my readers !  Lets hope that Royal Mail have managed to deliver the post by Christmas.
 

Sixpenny Handley in the Woodyates Penny Post in Dorset

Further to my earlier post on Woodyates Penny Post (in Dorset), here is another example of the unboxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp in use at Sixpenny Handley.  This example dates from February 1840.

An interesting aspect is the spelling of the letter to a solicitor in Blandford:

Taunton Penny Post to Lowton, 1839

The entire below is a bill from the Taunton Courier and General Printing-Office, East Street, Taunton to Lowton in September 1839.  It was charged 1d for the Taunton Penny Post.  Lowton is about 5 miles south of Taunton.

The contents are a bill for £1-5-0 for printing Bills for an advertisement for "Sweets Hotel, to be let or sold".  The auction at Sweets Hotel (now the Castle Hotel, Taunton) was for the right to 'farm' the tolls arising from use of the bridge at Burrowbridge, see here for more details.

Lowton was on the Churchinford Walk via Trull.  In February 1829 the Surveyor recommended that the Penny Post be extended to the villages south of Taunton, with a Receiving House at Trull.  A Messenger was to leave Taunton as soon as the letters were sorted, at about 3 p.m., and deliver on the road to Trull, where he would leave a Bag with the letters for Staplehay, Fulwood, Canonsgrove, Dipford, Daw's Green, Angersleigh, Lowton and Howleigh, to be delivered by the Trull Receiver.  The Messenger continued on via Amberd House, Poundisford Lodge, Poundisford Park, Barton House, Corfe, Pitminster and Blagdon, to Churchingford, "where he will leave letters for Churchstanton and Otterford".  On the following morning he would return to Taunton before the up Mail left. The Messenger was paid 12/- per week for the round trip of 18-20 miles.

Woodyates in Dorset

A post office was established at the Woodyates Inn on the Blandford - Salisbury turnpike in 1835, taking the post for Cranborne.  It had a Penny Post serving Thickthorne and Sixpenny Handley.  The item below is from Thickthorne which had the "No.1" receiving house handstamp and has an example of the earlier Woodyates Penny Post handstamp.

Woodyates also had an undated circular handstamp (UDC) as shown in the entire below sent in April 1838.

The envelope below from December 1839 bears the second Woodyates Penny Post handstamp. It was endorsed by Charles Ponsonby who was the MP for Poole and went free in the General Post but had to pay the local penny post.

The prepaid entire below was from "Upwood", a house just north of Sixpenny Handley where it received the No.2" receiving house handstamp.

The unfranked entire below was charged 2d as being sent unpaid and received a Woodyates dated double-arc handstamp in 1842.  The Woodyates Post Office was closed before April 1845.

 

Bristol Penny Post - Westbury-on-Trym, Henbury, Pensford, Olveston, Rudgeway

Here are a few Bristol Penny Post items starting with a wrapper sent in October 1828 from Westbury-on-Trym to Gloucester General Lunatic Asylum bearing a clean boxed "No.4" receiving house handstamp used at Westbury-on-Trym.

Here are the contents:

 

The mourning wrapper below originated in Henbury where it received the unboxed "No.51" receiving house handstamp before going through Westbury-on-Trym where it received an unboxed "No.4" handstamp in 1836.  It was sent free by Robert Blagden Hale, the MP for West Gloucestershire.  It was free in the General Post but had to pay the local Penny Post.

The cover below was from Pensford to the Thorncliffe Iron Works near Sheffield in March 1824 and has a partial boxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp used at Pensford at this time.  A little later in 1827 the boxed "No.13" handstamp moved to Brislington while Pensford used a boxed "No.14" handstamp.

The entire below also bears a Bristol Penny Post handstamp in 1847, seven years after the local Penny Post had been abolished with the introduction of the uniform penny post in 1840.  By 1847 the numbered receiving house handstamps had been replaced with undated circular handstamps (UDCs), with the entire below bearing UDCs from both Olveston and Rudgeway.

 

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.

Bristol Penny Post - a few items

Bristol had a large Penny Post system, with receiving house handstamps going up to No.70.  Here are a few items from its Penny Post.  Hotwells originally had the "No.1" receiving house handstamp, while Clifton had the "No.2" handstamp - until April 1832 when they swapped, perhaps because Clifton was then much the higher class area.  The entire below is from August 1823 with the third "No.1" handstamp used at Hotwells.

The entire below from Clifton to Edinburgh in May 1827 has the fifth boxed "No.2" handstamp used at Clifton, and a framed "1/2d" Scottish wheel tax handstamp.

Kingsdown had the "No.5" receiving house and in November 1837 was using an unboxed handstamp.

Here is an example of the unboxed "No.70" receiving house handstamp that was in use at Cross Hands near Pilning in May 1837.

The unboxed "No.66" receiving house handstamp is known in use at Rudgeway between 1836 and 1839 - the front below is a very late example.

The entire below is from Downend to Cardiff in October 1846 and has a degraded "No.38" receiving house handstamp.  The walk to Downend went via Stapleton which might explain the "STAPLETON-ROAD" udc handstamp.

Below is the contents of the entire from Downend.

Etchilhampton (Wiltshire) to Bath to Ryde, Isle of Wight, 1833

The somewhat overwritten cover below was sent from Etchilhampton in Wiltshire to Batheaston, and then redirected to Ryde on the Isle of Wight in August 1833.

Etchilhampton to Batheaston (spelled "Bath Easton") first went in the Devizes Penny Post, receiving an unboxed "No.9" receiving house handstamp and being charged 6d.  It was then redirected to Ryde, receiving a boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp and being charged 10d.

Cross

Cross is just west of Axbrige and was a Post Town becaust it was on the cross Post Road.  The first items below are from 1840, after the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post, and whows the "CROSS" double arc dated handstamp in black (February) and in red (June).  Red ink had been introduced to cancel the penny black stamp issued in May 1840.

Cross also had had a local Penny Post.  The items below are from after 1840, so the local Penny Post was no longer in operation, but the receiving house handstamps continued to be in use in the absence of any other issued handstamp.  The first one below from April 1842 has a small boxed "No.7" handstamp, possibly from Mark.

The next example from September 1843 has a large "No.7" handstamp.  Both this and the previous item were written in Wedmore.

The next two items have small boxed "No.9" handstamps, thought to be from Wedmore and were written in Stoughton Cross, a mile north of Wedmore.  The item below is from September 1844.

The final item is dated August 1845.

Bath Easton in the Bath Penny Post 1833

The entire below was sent from Etchilhampton near Devizes to 'Bath Easton' in August 1833, with a Devizes Penny Post handstamp and an unboxed "No.9" handstamp.  According to "Wiltshire and its Postmarks" by Dr John Siggers, the No.9 handstamp is known from Marden & Cannings from 1837 so this is an earlier use. Etchilhampton is about 2½ miles from All Cannings.

The cover was then redirected to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, receiving a boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp from Batheaston, a "Bath / P.y Post" handstamp, and a partial "BATH" double-arc handstamp dated 26th August 1833.  This is a later use of the "No.2" handstamp than has previously been recorded.

Hatch Beauchamp in the Ilminster Penny Post

As previously noted here, Hatch Beauchamp was in the Ilminster Penny Post as well as the Taunton Penny Post.  Here is another example dated April 1839 of a letter from Hatch [Beauchamp] to Chard with the Hatch unboxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp and the "Ilminster / Penny Post" handstamp.

The Cross Penny Post - Part III

Here are two further receiving house handstamps used in the Cross Penny Post, starting with a boxed "No.10" handstamp.  The receiving house is believed to be in East Brent, where ths entire below was written.  This is a late example from 1849 (well after the end of the Penny Posts in 1840).

The final example is an unboxed "No.12" receiving house handstamp used in February 1839 (so during the actual Penny Post period).  It was written in Hutton Vicarage and it is likely that the receiving house was either in Hutton or in nearby Locking.

The Cross Penny Post - Part II

Skipping ahead a few numbers from the previous post, Wedmore had the boxed "No.9" receiving house handstamp.  The entire below was written at Sand, a hamlet about a mile south of Wedmore.

We don't know where the large unboxed "No.7" receiving house handstamp was used.  Below are two examples, both bearing the name of the Revd. Kempthorne in the filing notes.  Revd. John Kempthorn was the vicar of Wedmore from 1827 until his death in 1876, and is recorded in the 1841 census as living in Wedmore.

The Cross Penny Post - Part I

A Penny Post was established at Cross in 1827 after the establishment of a new Mail Coach from Bristol to Bridgwater.  Cross was only a tiny place but it was at a point where the new coach road crossed a minor road from Axbridge to Weston-super-Mare.

A number of the receiving houses in the Cross Penny Post are difficult to place, though the first few are quite clear.  Axbridge had the boxed "No.1" receiving house handstamp, often used in blue alongside a straight-line "AXBRIDGE" handstamp.

Places often continued to use their Penny Post receiving house handstamp as receiving marks even after the introduction of the uniform penny post and the abolition of Penny Posts.

Weston-super-Mare had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp, ...

 

... and Banwell had the boxed "No.3" receiving house handstamp.

Two of the Receiving Houses in the Frome Penny Post

Frome has four different receiving house handstamps recorded, a boxed "No.1" thought to be used at Norton St Philip, an unboxed "No.2" thought to be used in Beckington, a boxed "No.2" used at Beckington (shown below) ...

... and an unboxed "No.3" used at Mells, where a receiving house was established in 1832.

Hatch Beauchamp in the Ilminster Penny Post

Hatch [Beauchamp] was in the Taunton Penny Post, using an unboxed "No.13" receiving house handstamp from 1838 to 1845.  Below is a wrapper where the unboxed "No.13" handstamp was used in the Ilminster Penny Post rather than the Taunton PP, going direct from Hatch Beauchamp to Ilminster to Chard.

Stoke(-sub-Hamdon) in the Penny Posts of Ilminster and Yeovil

Stoke(-sub-Hamdon) had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp in the Ilminster Penny Post and the Yeovil Penny Post.  It was also in the South Petherton Penny Post but with very small volumes.  In the Report of the Select Committee of 1838, Stoke had an annual revenue of £42 in the Yeovil PP, £3 in the Ilminster PP, and £1-5s-7d in the South Petherton PP.

Here are examples in the Ilminster PP (1832 & undated) and in the Yeovil PP (1832).  The first entire was written at Martock (2 miles north of Stoke) to Kingsbridge, while the other two examples were written at East Stoke and addressed to Chard.  The natural route from Stoke-sub-Hamdon to Chard would seem to be via Ilminster rather than via Yeovil.