Bristol Postal History

Sadly the Bristol Postal History Group has decided to wind itself up, due to reducing numbers of members.  The group achieved its main objective of publishing a 4-volume work on the postmarks of Bristol and its sub-offices.

This site will continue to hold a free-to-access online version of the Bristol Postal History catalogue, and to keep it updated as new marks or dates are reported.  Further reports, whether extended dates, corrections, or entirely new entries, are very welcome.  Please email details to bristolpostalhistorygroup@gmail.com with a scan (300 dpi colour preferred) if possible.

The  online catalogue of Bristol Postal History is available here, while the Offices under Bristol are here.

Offine versions for download are also available:

• • Volume 1 - "Introduction and Narrative" - 44MB

    • • "Introduction and Narrative" by section

  • Volume 2 - "The Main Marks of Bristol" - 35MB

  • Volume 3 - "The Slogans and Event Marks of Bristol" - includes Sub-Office marks by Type - 43MB

  • Volume 4 - "Offices under Bristol" - 64MB

  • BCC   - "British County Catalogue" update for Bristol, as at October 2022.  Print as "Booklet" to get A5 pamphlet - 5MB

  • Consolidated Updates to Volumes 1-4 - as at October 2021 - 21MB  (for those with printed copies of the BPHG book)

  • Bristol Maritime Mail - examples of Bristol Ship Letter handstamps etc. - 92MB

  • Bristol India & Cape Packet Letters - 19MB

  • Bristol Great Western & Great Britain Letters - 69MB

  • Bristol Paquebot & Ocean Mail Examples - 28MB

The following are short videos on YouTube showing the spread of Post Offices under Bristol:

• "The Post Offices under Bristol"

• "The Receiving Houses of the Bristol Penny Post"

• "The Railway Sub-Offices in the Bristol postal area"

Given the size of some of the files, viewers may want to consider right-clicking and selecting "Save Target as ..." or "Save Link as ..." to download onto their computer before opening from your hard drive (eg. via Windows Explorer or from a shortcut on your Desktop).  

Bristol Postal History Group

We were a small group of enthusiasts who studied and recorded most of the aspects of Bristol postal history from pre stamp - 1600's  to the present day.  We first met in 1998, and publish an informative journal two or three times per year.  A very large range of subjects were covered, from handstruck marks on prestamp covers, to all the different handstamps, meter marks, official paids and the range of different marks produced on the modern facing, cancelling and sorting machines.  

Our large project was to record every different steel/rubber date cancelling/charge mark 1730 to date. This proved to be a mammoth undertaking with over 4000 marks recorded and of some smaller post offices as yet no copies at all.  The 4-volume work on this was published in June 2017 (see here for a Review).

Having achieved this objective, and with an extended period without meetings due to Covid, the group decided to disband in October 2022.