Bristol 5th Clause and Penny Posts

Although Bristol is not in Somerset, it had Fifth Clause and Penny Posts that extended into Somerset as well as into South Gloucestershire.  The map below shows the Bristol local posts c. 1830.

I'm afraid that I've suffered from "scope creep" so the next posts are going to cover Bristol posts in both Somerset and Gloucestershire - I've covered some of these before so there will be a small amount of repitition.

I'll start with the 5th Clause Posts - Bristol had two, one to the south to Axbridge from 1805 to 1816 that I've already covered briefly here, and one to the north to Thornbury.

Here are some entires from the 5th Clause Post to Thornbury, the 2nd and 3rd sheets showing two different Bristol 5th Clause Post handstamps.  The Bristol Postal History Group have identified five different 5th Clause handstamps that were only used on the Thornbury ride.

 

 

Yeovil

Here are a couple of items of Yeovil postmarks that I've recently obtained, starting with a nice red Maltese Cross on a 1d black dated 31st December 1840.

Secondly a Half Penny printed stationery card with a Yeovil 4VOD (four-bar vertical oval duplex) cancel from March 1899.

Wellington Penny Post

More recent acquisitions, from the Wellington Penny Post.  Wellington's Penny Post had three Receiving Houses, at Uffculme in Devon (No.1), Sampford Arundel (No.2) and later at Milverton (though this then very soon became a sub-office of Wellington and Taunton).

The handstamp for the Wellington Penny Post was "Wellington.Com / Penny Post", the "Com" probably being a misprint of "Som" for Somerset.  This handstamp is known in use from 1831 to 1835.  Here are a number of examples of this handstamp.

 

 

Recent acquisitions continued ...

A piece from Shepton Mallet with a nice "Too Late" handstamp.

A few pieces from Taunton, starting with a very nice Fifth Clause Post handstamp with a "No.2" Receiving House stamp - Monksilver with No.2 in the Taunton 5th Clause Post.

Then an ordinary machine cancel from 1941, judging by the message from someone from South Wales having a holiday in Somerset.

And finally, an envelope sent Express Delivery in 1962. I hadn't realised there were so many different sorts of Express Delivery service.

Some more recent acquisitions

Firstly a straight-line "CHARD" from 1768, with an early bishopmark.

Then a couple of items from Crewkerne, firstly a maltese cross from 1844 (just before the numeral obliterators came out in May 1844).

And an item from Haselbury, under Crewkerne, with a "Haselbury / Penny Post" handstamp that looks brown, but is probably just black.

Finally a faint "ILMINSTER" circular handstamp, with 10d postage erased and replaced by 1/8d, with a nice red Inspector's mark.

A Bristol Postman, c. 1868

The portrait below is of a Bristol postman, taken in about 1868 by C. Voss-Bark - in this case Cyrus Voss-Bark rather than Conrad (who was a writer and a correspondent for the BBC and the Times who died in November 2000).

C. Voss-Bark had his studio at Strathearn House, Clifton and his card says that he was a "Photographer to Her Majesty The Queen and H.R.H. The Prince of Wales".  Cyrus Voss Bark was born Cyrus Herbert Voss-Bark in 1848 in Leicestershire and he died in 1913.

I discovered the photograph amongst some lots purchased at a recent auction;  there is no indication of the subject's identity.

Halloween tomorrow - Skeletons !

Final batch of skeletons, starting with one from Dorset.  Beaminster in Dorset was in the Crewkerne Penny Post.  The skeleton below is dated 9th July 1906 in manuscript - the year slug in the skeleton appears to be missing.

Some later examples from the 1920s - firstly one from Street dated 17th August 1921, and is known used from 25th July 1921 to the example below.

Two examples from Clevedon dated 10th and 12th September 1924.  The cancel is known used between 11th August and 24th September 1924.

And finally an example from 1975 - a philatelic registered envelope from Hatch Beauchamp dated 14th January 1975.  The cancel is known used between 31st December 1974 and 4th March 1975.  The example below is missing some letters from the cancels.

A few more skeletons !

Carrying on, here's a skeleton from Minehead S.O. (sub-office) - at least that is what it is supposed to be but the "S" of "SO" is missing.  Example is dated 8th April 1909, with the cancel in use from the 19th February to 11th April 1909 while Minehead swapped from a squared circle to a double circle cancel.

A skeleton from Roadwater next, dated 24th December 1909, just after the Roadwater sub-office transferred to come under Washford.  The cancel was in use between 19th November and 24th December 1909.

Shepton Mallet skeleton, example dated 12th August 1909, was in use from 17th July to 31st August 1909.

A couple of examples of a Wells skeleton, dated 26th November and 2nd December - the handstamp was in use between 17th November and 31st December 1903.

And finally a couple of examples of a Weston-super-Mare skeleton, dated 30th August and 5th September 1906.  The handstamp was in use from 27th July to 11th September 1906.

Halloween coming up - time for some Skeletons !

I've already shown a few skeleton cancels from Burnham, Glastonbury and Wellington, see here.

Here are a few more spread over the next few posts, mainly gathered at Midpex in July 2013.  Most are from the 1903-1909 period, with one from 1911, a couple of a slightly different format from the 1920s and one from 1975.

Frome skeleton dated 7th June 1904 - this handstamp was in use from 20th May to 6th July 1904.

Glastonbury skeleton dated 27th November 1904 - handstamp in use from 16th November to 9th December 1904.

A later Glastonbury skeleton dated 26th June 1911 - handstamp in use from 13th June to 20th July 1911.

Midsomer-Norton skeleton dated 25th April 1907, handstamp in use from 26th March to 11th May 1907.

Wells Penny Post - further recent acquisitions

Next we come to a boxed "No.6" receiving house cancel from Croscombe dated June 1837.

Then a piece with a framed "Wells.S. / P.yP." handstamp from 1826.  Any suggestions on how the postal charge was made up gratefully received.

A boxed "No.15" in the Wells Penny Post from March 1826 is from Ston Easton.  the entire would have gone via Old Down which from 1823 to 1826 had the boxed "No.15" handstamp, from the Bristol Penny Post but used in the Wells Penny Post.

And finally just to stay on the Wells theme, a  four bar vertical oval duplex from May 1883.