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.

 

Pensford "001." 3VOS cancels on 1884 letter to France

The envelope below from Pensford to France in November 1884 bears multiple "001." 3-bar vertical oval cancels.  This cancel was issued to Pensford on 21st September 1878 and is recorded used from March 1883 to August 1886.  The envelope is franked with 2½d of stamps, that being the UPU overseas rate from 1st July 1875.

 The envelope has an impressed address of "FARMBOROUGH RECTORY, BATH" on the reverse.  Farmborough is about four miles from Pensford.

Bath 1769 and 1833

This first, somewhat damaged, cover has a "BATH" straight-line handstamp, SO 54, that is known in use 1768-1769.  Bath used a series of similar straight line handstamps, distinguishable by their size and serifs (easier using enlarged scanned images).

The entire below is from Woollard, about a mile from Pensford where the receiving house used a "No.14" handstamp.  It went to Bath so was a "short" letter, one that did not go in the General Post.

Bristol Penny Post - Paulton (or Pensford), Templecloud

Pensford became receiving house No.14 from 1827 (replacing Templecloud which became No.15).  It appears that there were two handstamps in use, a smaller one at Pensford and a larger one at Paulton.

This entire is undated (apart from an unhelpful "Wednesday 10th") and was written from Sutton Court, near Bishop's Stowey which is six miles from Paulton and three miles from Pensford.  Based on the handstamp it appears that this entire was posted in Paulton.

This entire was written in Clutton, one mile north of Templecloud, in June 1839.  Templecloud had the boxed "No.15" handstamp from 1830 (having previously had the boxed "No.14" handstamp).

Barred Numeral Cancels - Pensford, Temple Cloud, West Town

Pensford, 12 miles west of Bath and 7 miles south of Bristol, was given post office number 001 in 1878.

Temple Cloud, 11 miles south of Bristol, was in the Bristol Penny Post from 1818 and was issued post office number 006 in 1878.

West Town, 9 miles WSW of Bristol, was in the Bristol Penny Post from 1824.  It became an RSO in 1861 and was allocated post office number B45.  It had both 3HOS and 3VOS cancels; the first sheet shows a 3HOS on cover while the second sheet shows both types of cancel on stamp.

A Newspaper posted to Pensford in 1877

Below are images of the front and back of  a page of "The Local Government Chronicle and Knight's Official Advertiser" which was sent to "All Boards of Guardians and Sanitary Authorities" which was published weekly.  As stated on the front cover this had been "Registered at the General Post Office as a Newspaper".

From 1870 each copy of a periodical registered as a newspaper with the Post Office could be sent at a special rate (initially this was regardless of weight).  From 1870 to 1915 this rate was ½d each - but this posting of a registered newspaper for some reason did not take advantage of the rate, being franked with a 1d stamp.

The front bears a 1d red plate 189 cancelled with a "BRISTOL / 134" 4-bar vertical oval duplex cancel dated 14th February 1877, with a single ring "PENSFORD" cancel also dated 14th February but with no year visible.

As can be seen and as was normal for newspapers of the time, the front consists of commercial advertisements aimed at the target audience of sanitary engineers and guardians who managed the workhouses or poor houses.  The reverse of the page has "official" advertisements for Medical Officers, Schoolmistresses, Nurses and other posts associated with the workhouses.

See here for the Wikipedia article on Workhouses.

Bristol Penny Post - Pensford & Chew Magna

The entire below has the No.14 Receiving House handstamp of Pensford from June 1827 - this is an early use of the No.14 handstamp as Pensford was No.13 until some time in 1827 (when Brislington became No.13).

The following entires have the No.17 Receiving House handstamp for Chew Magna, all three from 1847.

 

 

Yet more early serif UDCs - Upper Clevedon, Pensford, Pilton, Curry-Rival, ...

Upper Clevedon's UDC was registered on 9th May 1843 and is known used from June 1843 to September 1850 in black, with a single example in yellow known from 1851.  The example below in black is relatively late usage from April 1850.

Pensford's UDC was not registered in the Steel Impression Book, but is known used from July 1843 to August 1850.  The two examples below are from January 1844 and July 1850.

Pilton's UDC was registered in the SIB on 3rd January 1844 and is known used from 1845 to August 1855.  the example below is from January 1852.

Curry-Rival's UDC was registered on 7th February 1844 and is known used in black from 1848 to February 1857 and in blue from August 1851 to January 1858.  The example in blue below is from June 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.