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.

 

Village Penny Post handstamps under Bristol

In 1839 new types of village Penny Post handstamps started to be introduced (just in time to be made unnecessary with the introduction of the uniform penny post).  Five such handstamps were introduced under Bristol - Brockley, Knowle, Redland, Westbury-on-Trym and Whitchurch.  The handstamps were used for approximately ten years.

Bristol Penny Post - Henbury

Henbury had a boxed "No.51" handstamp from 1827.  The example below from April 1834 is currently the latest known example.

Later in 1834 Henbury had an unboxed "No.51" handstamp, which is known in use until 1842.  The entire below also has an unboxed "No.4" from Westbury-on-Trym, one mile to the south of Henbury.

Skeletons (Bristol) - Avonmouth, Westbury-on-Trym

To finish these posts on Skeletons, here are a couple of examples from Bristol/Gloucestershire rather than from Somerset, starting with one from Avonmouth.

The cancel is dated 16th January 1913 - it has previously only been known from 16th November to 18th December so this may be either a three-week extension to the usage or it may be a new usage.

And finally a skeleton from Westbury-on-Trym dated 7th April 1910, the last known date of usage.

Bristol Penny Post - Redland & Westbury-on-Trym

More Penny Posts from the Bristol suburbs, both of which were issued with two line script Penny Post handstamps in 1839.  Redland was Receiving House No.3.

 

Westbury-on-Trym was Receiving House No.4.