Keynsham 'Wessex' cancel

Before the issue of barred numeral cancels, approximately 40 towns in south-west England used their circular date stamps for cancelling adhesive stamps rather than Maltese Cross cancels, the majority known being used during 1842. These are commonly referred to as the “Wessex” cancellations because of the region from which most of them originate.

Here is an example of one, possibly inadvertant,  from Keynsham in November 1841.

Somerset "Wessex" Cancel from Bridgewater

Approximately 40 towns in south-west England used their circular date stamps for cancelling adhesive stamps rather than Maltese Cross cancels, the majority known being used during 1842. These are commonly referred to as the “Wessex” cancellations because of the region from which most of them originate.

The item below is a "Wessex" cancel from Bridgewater in July 1842.

Other places in Somerset that have known "Wessex" cancels are Bath (6), Bridgewater (2), Chard (8), Crewkerne (1), Frome (1), Ilminster (1), Taunton (3), Wellington (2), Wells (1), Weston-super-Mare (1), Wincanton (16) and Yeovil (2).

The numbers in brackets are the number of examples known by Rockoff & Jackson - their Volume 3 of "The Encyclopedia of The Maltese Cross Cancellations" lists the known "Wessex" cancels.