Yeovil - 1878 and 1972

The cover below, sent in September 1878 from South Petherton to Montacute, was underfranked as it weighed more than 1 oz.  It received a framed "More to pay / above ... oz / 929" cachet with a manuscript "1".

The much more modern cover below was undelivered in Yeovil in 1972 and returned to the sender in Norwich.  It was addressed to "Petter's Engines Ltd, Yeovil" and was marked "UNKNOWN / AT YEOVIL. / SOMERSET." in a violet framed cachet. 

In 1894 the family business James B. Petter & Sons were ironmongers in Yeovil, and hired Ben Jacobs who was instrumental in their business to make high speed steam engines.  In 1910 Petter Ltd. became a public company, later moving to Westland and then purchasing the Vickers factory in Ipswich.  See https://www.farmcollector.com/company-history/petter-engine/ for many more details of the history.

Yeovil, and Yeovilton

A series of covers from Yeovil starting with a 4-bar vertical oval (4VOD) cancel from 1870.  It's sometimes difficult to date these, but in the example below there is a manuscript date on the reverse of 9th December 1870.

The large OHMS envelope below was sent in August 1900 and has oval "REGISTERED / YEOVIL" cancels.

A postcard to Trowbrige om June 1927 with a "YEOVIL.SOM" Krag cancel - and a sticker for Yeovil Carnival.

More modern now, some meter mail from Yeovil with a triangular Royal Mail Quality Control Yeovil cachet saying that the meter mark has the wrong date - firms had to remember to update the date manually at the start of a new day.

And finally a certificate of posting with a Yeovilton Royal Navy Station postmark from April 1995, and a Savings Certificate form with a preprinted address for the post office.

Yeovil boxed mileage mark, 1802 & 1808

Here are a couple of examples of the "YEOVIL / 125" boxed mileage mark, known in use from 1801 to 1811.  The first is from 1802 ...

... and the contents are a report on the bids for land at auction.

The second is from 1808 with a cleaner handstamp.  The contents also relate to land purchase and are a memorandum about the purchase of various farms and estates by Sir John Lethbridge of Sandhill Park.

Inverted unified machine daters - Yeovil (1970), Taunton (1976)

Not very rare, more of a curiosity, here are a couple of items where the machine cancel dater is inverted with respect to the slogan, starting with one from Yeovil in May 1970 ...

... followed by one from Taunton in November 1976.

Stoke(-sub-Hamdon) in the Penny Posts of Ilminster and Yeovil

Stoke(-sub-Hamdon) had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp in the Ilminster Penny Post and the Yeovil Penny Post.  It was also in the South Petherton Penny Post but with very small volumes.  In the Report of the Select Committee of 1838, Stoke had an annual revenue of £42 in the Yeovil PP, £3 in the Ilminster PP, and £1-5s-7d in the South Petherton PP.

Here are examples in the Ilminster PP (1832 & undated) and in the Yeovil PP (1832).  The first entire was written at Martock (2 miles north of Stoke) to Kingsbridge, while the other two examples were written at East Stoke and addressed to Chard.  The natural route from Stoke-sub-Hamdon to Chard would seem to be via Ilminster rather than via Yeovil.

Yeovil Receiver, 1868

The envelope below, from Piddletown to Yeovil in April 1868, has a "YEOVIL" single ring receiving mark on the reverse (nothing at all exceptional but not always collected).

Piddletown was later renamed Puddletown in the late 1950s.  "Piddle" comes from the River Piddle.  Other villages on the River Piddle contain the name Piddle or have been renamed to Puddle.  Here is an envelope from Piddletrenthide ('trenthide' comes from it having been assessed for thirty hides in the Domesday Book).

Newspaper wrapper sent within Yeovil

The Newspaper wrapper below was sent within Yeovil and received a degraded Yeovil "929" vertical oval cancel.  It may be a copy of the 3-bar vertical oval cancel issued in 1880.

It is possible that the newspaper wrapper contained the Western Gazette, published in Yeovil.

Yeovil "J.T.D" perfin, 1903 and "R T/G" perfin 1961

The envelope shown below has a KEVII 1d stamp with a "J.T.D" perfin, sent from Yeovil to Compton Pauncefoot.  The perfin was used by John Trevor Davies, a solicitor in Yeovil.  Perfins were used to prevent theft as the Post Office would not cash a stamp with perfins in (unlike normal stamps which could be exchanged for cash).

Somewhat later, here is another Yeovil perfin, this time a "R T / G" perfin sent within Yeovil in 1961.  The perfin was used by the Road Transport & General insurance company.

Western Gazette Perfin, 1941

Perfins were used by companies to prevent pilferage of their postage stamps - it used to be possible to exchange postage stamps for cash at a Post Office.  Below is an example of the "W/G" perfin, used by the Western Gazette Co. Ltd, Yeovil on a windowed commercial cover in October 1941.

Undated "YEOVIL" handstamp, c.1759-1769.

Acquired off the internet, the undated entire below has gone from Yeovil via Taunton and Bristol to Oxford via the cross post. The mileage is over 80 miles so would have been charged 4^d, the rate for over 80 miles from 1711 to 1784.

Undated entire from Yeovil to Garsington near Oxford, with mansucript “X post” and stylised “4” for postage.

On the reverse a “YEOVIL” straight line handstamp (34½ x 7½ mm), a “TAUNTON” straight line handstamp

(41x7 mm, SO 751, in use 1759-1769) and a “B / RIS / TOL” handstamp (18x17 mm, BS 18, in use 1747-1772).

Based on the known dates for the Taunton handstamp, the entire is dated from between 1759 and 1769. This could match the date for the “YEOVIL” handstamp, SO 1042, known used in 1766, though the measurements are not precisely the same – the handstamp measures 34½x7½ mm, while SO 1042 is in the British County Catalogue as 35x8 mm. However the compilers of the BCC did not have the benefit of computers and scanners to be able to precisely measure their handstamps.

Coloured handstamps, Taunton to Yeovil 1853

The wrapper below was sent from Taunton to Yeovil in October 1853 and has orange handstamps on the reverse from Taunton (fully dated) and Yeovil (no day/month).

I understand that the use of colour handstamps at this time was a Post Office experiment.

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.

Miscellany - GWR perfin, WWI "More Baccy", Yeovil invoice

A trio of random miscellany, starting with a "GWR" perfin, date unknown, from Athelney railway station.

Next is a  WWI postcard from the front saying thank-you for the gift parcel of "smokes" in 1917.

And finally an invoice from The Western Gazette, Yeovil in 1879.

Yeovil - a couple of items

Here are a couple of items from Yeovil, the first being a returned letter with a "YEOVIL / M.O & S.B" handstamp from September 1888.  The letter was undelivered because the partnership of solicitors to which it was addressed had been dissolved, and the letter was then returned in the OHMS envelope shown below.

The second item is a an envelope with a mis-dated meter mark from June 1986 and a violet cachet reading:

FRANKING ME WITH AN / INCORRECT DATE /

HAS MADE IT APPEAR THAT / I'VE ARRIVED LATE

WW II: Yeovil (air raid) and RNAS Henstridge (HMS Dipper)

Here are two items with WW II links, starting with a postal stationery card from Yeovil in August 1940.  The card has two 1d printed stamps as the rate increased to 2d on 1st May 1940 and there weren't any 2d dies available.  The message on the postcard talks about an air raid on Yeovil.

The second item is a large birthday greetings card to a Wren at RNAS Henstridge (HMS Dipper) which trained pilots to land on aircraft carriers.

Yeovil Penny Post: Boxed "No.2" in 1837, and blue cds (1849)

Stoke [-sub Hamdon] had the boxed "No.2" receiving house handstamp in the Yeovil Penny Post.  The example below is dated March 1837.

While we're on Yeovil, here is an example of the Yeovil cds (SO 1064) in blue from 1849.

Boxed Mileage Marks - "WIVELSCOMBE / 175" & "YEOVIL / 123"

The last two boxed mileage marks ...  note the spelling of "WIVELSCOMBE", no "I" in the middle (this is how it is pronounced).

“WIVELSCOMBE / 175” 1805-1829

“YEOVIL / 123” 1801-1811

Early Mileage Marks - "126 YEOVIL"

The “126 YEOVIL” handstamp is known used from 1789 to 1792, though could have been in use earlier as the two previous Yeovil handstamps are only known used in 1778 and 1780 in archives.

The entire mentions enclosures. Between 1784 and 1796, 4^d was the General Post rate for up to 80 miles, so at triple rate (for two enclosures) that would be 1/- postage.

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".

Yeovil penny local delivery charge in 1807

The entire shown below was sent free on 9th January 1807 to Yeovil and has a "1d" local delivery charge on the reverse.  While postage in the General Post may have been free, such entires were still liable to the Penny Post and to local delivery charges.