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.

 

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.