A Miscellany - Beckington, Milton Road (WSM), Putsom, Roman Road (Taunton), Yeovilton

Herewith a miscellany of postmarks, starting with a Beckington skeleton cancel in March 1905.  This skeleton is only known used on 30th March 1905.

Vaguely alphabetically, the next cover is from Milton Road, Weston-super-Mare in May 1940.  The post office was established in 1931 so this is likely to be the original cancel supplied to the office.

This example of the Putsom UDC from May 1849 is the earliest date recorded so far.  The contents are a Life Assurance letter.

Moving on, this next is a First Day Cover from Roman Road, Taunton.  The post office opened in 1939 but this is the first postmark I have encountered.

And finally a registered cover from Yeovilton Royal Naval Air Station in September 1975, using a Yeovil registration etiquette.  I have an earlier registered cover dated 1947 that used a Yeovilton etiquette.

Another Miscellany - Wiveliscombe Druids, Weston-super-mare, Wells

Another miscellany starting with an illustrated envelope from the United Ancient Order of Druids sent from Wiveliscombe to Taunton in 1905.

Here are a couple of items from Weston-super-Mare, firstly a Souvenir Card addressed to Canada in 1932 with a Weston-super-Mare Hey-Dolphin machine cancel ... 

... and secondly a Newspaper wrapper for the Weston-super-Mare Gazette with an unclear postmark, maybe 1937.

Finally an entire from Wells to Chard with a circular mileage mark.  The entire is dated October 1827 inside and requests an annual sum to be sent - apparently a year pension of £1-0-0.

Some mail to / from abroad

Here are a number of covers to or from abroad, starting with one going by airmail from North Curry to Australia in 1946.  Apart from the high franking value of 1/3 there is nothing odd about the cover - though as it was from before the introduction of a general scheme for airmails in January 1947 it's difficult to know what the correct postal rate would have been.

 

This next cover is from Antigua to Wells in 1841.  The letter was charged 1/-.  The contents relate to shipments of sugar.

And finally the letter below was sent to Cyprus Poste Restante from Weston-super-Mare in August 1960 but was not claimed so was returned and was charged based on it being underfranked at 6d rather than 9d.

Not Called For at Weston-super-Mare

Two examples here of the framed "Not called for / 871" cachet used at Weston-super-Mare, the first from 1902 with a nice "M.O.O." (Money Order Office) cancel.  Weston-super-Mare became a Money Order Office in 1842 and a Savings Bank branch in 1862 - so in 1902 the cancel should be "M.O & S.B" rather than "M.O.O", probably a case of taking any old cancel out of the drawer when the postcard was handed in at the post office.

The envelope below from 1961 was also not called for and received the same framed "Not called for / 871" cachet.  In this case the envelope had been posted from Warminster.

Look carefully !

One needs to have a good look at covers, witness the example below from Weston-super-Mare to Stroud in July 1881.

The postage stamp is a fiscal, very similar to the 1d lilac but "INLAND REVENUE" without any "POSTAGE".

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.

Weston-super-Mare PAID unified machine cancels

Four different PAID daters  for unified machine cancels are known for Weston-super-Mare, two of which are only known by a single example.  Here are the two common ones.

 

 

Between the two uses above, on 16th September 1968, First and Second Class mail was introduced, so the cancels switched from "3D / PAID" to "2ND / PAID".

 

Triangle "871" (Weston-super-Mare) slogan cancel, 1949

The envelope below has an undated "871" triangle slogan cancel from Weston-super-Mare.  One can date the cover from the slogan to April 1949.

There is part of a second impression on the left of the envelope - I have been advised that it's a unified machine cancel with wrong tensioning of the trip mechanism (so not a continuous machine cancel).

"WESTON-SUPER-MARE / AVON.B" unified machine cancel, December 1976, franking a Green Shield Stamp

One suspects that this might have been a deliberate use of a Green Shield Stamp on an envelope from Weston-super-Mare to Burnham-on-Sea in December 1976 !  I assume it just got missed in the Christmas rush and hence did not get charged postage due.  Second class rate at the time was 6½p.

Underpaid Letter from USA to Weston-super-Mare, 1895 with Liverpool Packet mark

Here is an underpaid letter from Iowa to Weston-super-Mare.  It had a 2c stamp (the standard US domestic rate) rather than 5c, equivalent to 2½d which from 1892 was the standard UPU foreign mail rate.

 Among the many marks there is a circular Liverpool Packet mark "U2 PACKET" (not sure about the "2") which I think denotes an Unpaid or Underpaid Packet.  Any info gratefully received.

Field Post Office postcard to Weston-super-Mare, 1917

The postcard below is an example of the standard issue postcards that were sent back from the front in WWI.  It was sent from FPO 87 in March 1917.

Weston-super-Mare OHMS Savings Bank printed letter

Below is an example of the OHMS letter used to acknowledge a deposit with the Post Office Savings Bank.  It was sent from London to Weston-super-Mare in April 1874.

Weston-super-Mare and Yeovil

This first item is a postcard, labelled as a "BOOK POST Card", sent from Weston-super-Mare to Cudworth, Yorkshire.  It has a "Liable to Letter Rate / 871" cachet because it has a message written rather than just the sender's name and address.

Strictly speaking it is not a postcard because it is the wrong size.  From 1st November 1899 until 31st October 1906 the minimum size to qualify for the for a postcard was 3¼" x 2¼".  However the card is franked with a 1d stamp, the rate for a letter, rather than with a ½d stamp which was the rate for a postcard, so despite the cachet the postcard was correctly franked.

The envelope below was sent from Yeovil to Calcutta on 4th September 1939, the day after Great Britain and France declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland.

Cross Penny Post "No.2" and "No.5"?, 1835

Here are two recently acquired examples of the Cross Penny Post, both from 1835.  This first one is from August 1835 and is from Weston-super-Mare with a poor boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp.  This is one of the more common receiving house marks in the Cross Penny Post.

This next example is from June 1835 and was written at Uphill.  I think it has a boxed "No.5" receiving house handstamp but it is impossible to be 100% sure because the handstamp was over-inked. 

The assignment of some of the receiving house handstamps in the Cross Penny Post is difficult because there are few examples.  It was previously thought that "No.5" could be Sidcot and that Uphill could be "No.8" - unfortunately this example is not clear enough to make a definitive statement that Uphill was "No.5".

Westhay, West Pennard, Weston-super-Mare, Wincanton and Middle Street, Yeovil

Finally, to finish off the pile of material that has accumulated in recent months, here are a number of items late in the alphabet starting with a Certificate of Posting from Westhay in 1986.

Next is a telegram to Mr Allen (of cider fame) with a "WEST PENNARD / GLASTONBURY.SOMERSET" double circle double-arc handstamp dated July 1930.

The registered envelope below is from Weston-super-Mare in August 1915 to Japan and has the manuscript annotation "Via Siberia if available or america".

Here is a Wincanton Parcel Post Label dated July 1912.

And finally a registered letter from Middle Street, Yeovil in 1922 with a Yeovil registration etiquette manually filled in with sub-office "1".

Wellington, Weston-super-Mare, Williton and Wiveliscombe

Some more "W"s that have appeared on my desk, starting with a Wellington skeleton from March 1915 - the cancel is "WEL INGTON / SOM" with missing letters.

Next are a couple of postage due items from Weston-super-Mare, firstly an unfranked envelope from 1940 with two different "TO PAY" handstamps, the first (incorrect) one being crossed out in pencil.

... and secondly an underfranked postcard with a nice framed TO PAY cachet from 1958.

Moving on, the next item is a newspaper wrapper, also from Weston-super-Mare, with a red PAID handstamp from 1979 ...

... and then another newspaper wrapper from Williton with a red postage paid meter frank from 1981.

And finally two Wiveliscombe items, firstly "WIVELISCOMBE R.S.O. / SOMERSET" cancels from 1905 and 1908 (the RSO terminology was dropped in 1905) ...

... and a "WIVELISCOMBE - S.O / SOMERSET" cancel from 1918.

"More to Pay" or "Not Known"

Happy Christmas !

This cover from Bath to Reading in April 1861 has a nice "MORE TO PAY / OVER   OZ" cachet and a manuscript "2" with initials.

This next item was addressed to Clifton from Bridgwater in May 1883 but has a manuscript "Not Known" with initials.  The contents are a notice regarding the Somersetshire Drainage Act of 1877.

 This next item from Weston-super-Mare to Cork in June 1942 was insufficiently paid and was censored.  The Examiner has taken the trouble to write "The" on the censorship seal where it overlaid the original address.

And finally a windowed envelope from Taunton in March 1992 without a stamp.  By then postage due of double the deficiency had been replaced with the postage deficiency plus a handling fee.  In this case it was cheaper than double the deficiency would have been.

Cross Penny Post, Dunster in 5th Clause Post, Old-Down in Bath Penny Post

Weston-super-Mare had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp in the Cross Penny Post.  Here is an example from September 1831.

Dunster had the boxed "No.4" receiving house handstamp in the Taunton Fifth Clause Post up to 1828 (Mr Luttrell of Dunster Castle objecting to any conversion to Penny Post because he would then have to pay for his newspapers' delivery in the post).  This example is from April 1825.

Here is an example of the Dunster undated circular handstamp from August 1846 with the date written in manuscript inside the handstamp.

This pre-printed insturance letter was initially sent to "Wells, Somerset or Stratton near Chilcompton, Bath" and then returned from Old Down to London in July 1830.