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Summer 2014 Newsletter
WELLY POST
Sandra Poole
The Welly Post (Wellington, Somerset) has had good coverage on both TV news and in the philatelic and local press. It was set up last December by the owners of Teare Newsagents, initially as a Christmas Post but now as an all year round enterprise. It offers a postal service to the local community for a charge of 30p per item and guarantees next day delivery within a 2½ mile limit. Customers can either take their letters and packages to the shop or, for an extra 10p, have them collected from their home. There is also a business rate of 25p for bulk deliveries. The post is family run, with the recently retired husband cycling round town and the daughter driving to outlying villages. In July, I put it to the test myself, sending a letter and stamped addressed envelope and payment in Royal Mail postage stamps. At my request, they included a second ‘stamp’, which they use more as a label to advertise their service than a pre-payment stamp for the service they provide. They dropped my letter in a post box and it duly arrived a few days later. Result- another satisfied customer!
You might also be interested in the rarities on the top right hand side of cover. (a) A British commemorative stamp.
(b) A British commemorative stamp actually cancelled.
Penny Farthing Postal Service was started on 1 April 2012 by a local poet and entertainer, Graham Eccles, who ran the operation single handed. Post boxes were placed in various shops around the town and stamps could be bought at the same locations for 25p. The organiser produced these himself; he also had his own franking system. Next day delivery was guaranteed. He rode the 20mile round, delivering the letters on a modern day version of the penny-farthing, which he adapted from a unicycle. In the first few days, he delivered 150 letters and the service was popular.
Unfortunately, the strain of being the sole operator became too much and the business soon folded, although there had been hopes of a Christmas revival, if others joined the enterprise. It seems this did not happen, but all was not lost; his stamps became collectors’ items on Ebay!
More successful is the family run Webbs Postal Service, set up on 3 March this year. Like the Welly Post, which was their inspiration, it is combined with a newspaper delivery service, Webbs of Leverington, and it delivers the mail seven days a week to Wisbech and 20 neighbouring villages. However, this service is available only to those who receive their newspapers/magazines from the business. Letters to be sent are collected from customers’ homes when the newspapers are delivered. Each item costs 30p and the home made stamps are sold in batches of ten. How to buy stamps- ring 0800-0509838. I haven’t checked, but maybe they are also available on Ebay?.
TRONDHJEM'S BY POST (Norway)- the British & German Connection
Sandra Poole
This local post ran from 1865-1913. The second owner, Braekstad also owned the printing works, where all the stamps were printed. One of these, printed in 1886-7 by lithography, is shown in fig 1. The design was based on the, GB1880, 2d rose, head of QV, surface printed by De La Rue & Co. (fig 2). So that was the end of the story- or was it? Recently, I was searching the Ebay site devoted mainly to Scandinavian local posts, although the German equivalent has gradually been creeping in- see fig 3: Leipzig Courier Post, printed by Gustav Bertram, 1893.
Apart from the central design, 1 and 2 are almost identical. With this changed, unless you believe in coincidence, 1 then becomes a model for 3.. Numbers in circles are not uncommon, but this central frame is quite distinctive. But how come Leipzig modelled its stamp on Trondhjem’s?
AN IRISH LETTER
Douglas Harvey
The Irish Travelling Post office (TPO) was established in 1855, as a Dublin-Cork night service. The final service, to Galway, closed in 1994, and the illustration shows a cover, which travelled on the final TPO run. Letters posted in Dublin after the last main collection time could be put into a special TPO posting box for delivery on the following day, at an additional posting cost, which in 1994 was set at 15p. The cover is not addressed, so it must be what is called ‘philatelic’. It was- supposedly- posted in the special box in Dublin without the necessary late fee of 15p on 21 January 1994, for delivery in Galway (Gaelic name: Gaillimh) on 22 January. Actually, it waited in Galway until 24 January, where postage due stamps to the value of 65p were affixed and cancelled, in accordance with the ‘insufficiently prepaid’ cachet. It then completed its journey to the ‘unknown recipient’, to be sold and finally to enter my collection.
THE LETTER BOX STUDY GROUP
Sandra Poole
The Letter Box Study Group (LBSG) is an independent, self financing and politically non-aligned organisation. It was formed in 1976 and has grown from small beginnings to become the recognised authority on the history and development of the British roadside letter box. It helps Royal Mail in its heritage obligations but there is no formal relationship or link. The LBSG operates completely autonomously from any other organisation. The aim of the LBSG is to encourage research into letter box history, to undertake preservation and conservation, as well as recording and documenting Britain's letter box heritage. This includes overseas, where British boxes or box designs have been used. Members approach letter boxes from different directions: philately, postal history, social history, street furniture, casting and manufacturing heritage. All, however, are captivated by the romance of the iconic letter box, so central for so long to the communication network of the British Isles. In 2005 the LBSG embarked on an ambitious project called The Guide to British Letter Boxes. It aims to be the definitive publication on the subject and is being issued part by part in full colour sections.
This is just a small section from the Letter Box Study Group brochure. For further details, visit www.lbsg.org or write to the Membership Secretary at 38 Leopold Avenue, Birmingham B20 1ES. The group maintains a directory of types of boxes and details of their location. The aim is to record all 115,500 UK boxes.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Alan Squires
In past years we have had a number of ‘gimmicky’ new issues from various countries. Postage stamps that smell and taste of chocolate from Belgium came out in February 2013. There have been a number of hologram stamps in recent years which give the impression of movement as the letter is moved. Stamps with bar codes which, when scanned, play a recorded message have also been tried.
The latest set from Jersey can actually be sown to grow poppies! These are in their World War I commemorative set issued on May 6th with half the proceeds going to the Royal British Legion. You are encouraged to plant the stamps now so that the poppies are ready for November. These could become a very scarce collector’s item if everyone does decide to plant them. I suppose we could press the flowers and display them as supplementary material in a presentation.
The one that really caught my eye was the Austrian porcelain stamp. This is 4mm thick and weighs 11gm. It can be stuck to your envelope using ‘an adhesive on a film’, (sellotape?). I see a number of problems. Will the Royal Mail add postage dues if it is sent to this country on the grounds that it weighs more after the stamp has been affixed! Collectors are always quite rightly complaining that their mail is not being cancelled. Of course, collectors wanting to get their hands on this stamp on cover will be disappointed to find that it has been cancelled by Royal Mail on arrival and thereby ‘smashed in transit’.
(Another recent stamp gimmick, so I’ve read, is a single stamp (in a miniature sheet) printed in real gold by Switzerland. This is an embossed circular stamp, perforated and gummed, in the shape of a Swiss coin with 22 carat gold leaf then printed on to it. Ed.)
SOCIETY MEETING REPORTS
Scott and Shackleton Polar Expeditions- Trevor Cornford, 16 May 2014.
The final presentation in the Society’s Centennial Programme was a detailed insight into the early expeditions to the South Polar region given by Trevor Cornford, who is chairman of the Polar History Society of Great Britain. Preparations for South Polar exploration began at the end of the 19th century, when the map of Antarctica showed a huge circular unexplored area. The 1901 ‘Discovery’ expedition organised by the Royal Geographic Society, was named after the purpose built ship. Led by Captain Robert Scott and with Ernest Shackleton as third officer, they carried out scientific surveys in Antarctica. On display were several items of mail which had been despatched from NZ and carried an expedition logo, which appeared both on a special postage stamp and also on the notepaper. The ship was damaged by ice and the rescued party was returned to NZ. Scott went back home and commenced a fund-raising lecture tour. Shackleton returned to the region in 1907 as leader of the ‘Nimrod’ Expedition, again named after a ship. The display included letters with specially overprinted NZ stamps. The explorers reached the magnetic Pole and climbed the Mount Erebus volcano, but could not reach the South Pole. Scott’s last expedition was the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition (1910-13). The main items on display were the letters and covers sent to his mother by Captain Oakes, who also died on the expedition. The Scott party reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, where they found Amundsen’s flag. The few survivors returned via NZ, which had again issued overprinted stamps. Shackleton’s next attempt, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17), was also ill-fated, as the ship ‘Endurance’ was destroyed by ice. After serving in World War I, Shackleton made a final attempt in 1921, but he died while his ship ‘Quest’ was moored in South Georgia, where he lies buried.
St. Helena Forgeries- Roger West , 4 July 2014
The little island of St. Helena with a population of 5,000 commenced issuing stamps in 1856 with an order to Perkins Bacon for just 2,000 copies of a recess printed 6d blue stamp. Around the turn of the century, as stamp collecting became popular, this issue was almost unobtainable and forgeries began to appear. In 1861, perforate stamps were issued in various colours with new values overprinted in order to reduce production costs and these also appeared as forgeries. Roger West has completed a comprehensive study of these forgeries and has identified no fewer than 16 sources of forged examples of the stamps. The forgeries have been identified by their various mistakes: lithography printing, design errors and printed cancellations. Bogus covers were also shown. Most of the forged stamps originated from Spiro Bros of Hamburg and complete sheets of four plates of their forgeries were on display. When the real issue was withdrawn, the St. Helena Post Office disposed of the stamps, obliterated with a violet cancellation. Immersing in bleach removed the obliteration and created new colour varieties. Finally, Roger showed a collection of facsimiles of the stamps which he had produced himself, together with a letter of sanction from Crown Agents. This was a most fascinating talk with an amazing depth of knowledge.
Phoenix Competition 2 May 2014
Congratulations to our winners in the competition. Full results appeared on the main web site and in the Spring Newsletter as a ‘Stop press’, but there was no space for the pictorial proof!
Photos by Alan Squires
MEMBERS' REPORTS
Royal Distinguished Philatelist (RDP) Weekend, Ypres, Belgium -11 to 14 July 2014 by Bryan and Minou Button
As Ypres, or Leper as they prefer to say in Flanders, has particular meaning to us all this year, we wanted to have the possibility of attending an RDP ceremony. Everyone should be reminded that Leper was raised to the ground during the shelling and battles of the First World War. Although Winston Churchill suggested that it be left as ruins to remind us all of this devastating war, the burghers of Leper, and all Belgium, chose the path of reconstruction. Every building was re-erected lovingly and accurately over many years. After arrival and check-in, we attended the opening of the philatelic exhibition at the Vleeshuis. There was a great variety of exhibits, 163, of 16 sheets, with many summaries in three languages, the only drawback being poor lighting in this reconstruction of a medieval building. A goody bag included the special dated sheet edition of 10 stamps from Belgium for the RDP ceremony and two special stamps for the Académie de Philatélie. There was also a ballottin (small box- ed.) of chocolates made in Ieper (long gone, I am afraid; as they contain no preservatives they must be eaten). With a few hours free, we went to the Museum located in the Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) where there was a marvellous and harrowing exhibition ‘In Flanders’ Fields’. A balanced presentation, using many exhibits from the war and a particularly successful use of holograms: soldiers, doctors and nurses from all parties to the war telling of their experiences. On the 12th July, four presentations were given at the Novotel: Robert Johnson RDP: Belgium and the Netherlands: World War One and the suspension of mail services; Henk Slabbinck: The logistics lined up to retreat and to save persons, assets and valuables; Reg Harrison BPSC: The impact of the war on Postal History and Three members of the Smithsonian Institution National Postal Museum: Presentation of the Postal Museum, contents and displays. With another few hours free, there was time to look at the displays again. We then attended the RDP ceremony, in The Cloth Hall; sponsoring and presenting the newly elevated RDPs: Robert Johnson and Chris King from the United Kingdom, Wolfgang Maassen from Germany and W. Danforth Walker from the United States of America. They joined the 82 living signatories of the 370 who have signed the roll from 1921. The ceremony was attended by 132 guests and 45 RDPs. This was followed by the ceremony of remembrance of the last post at the Menin Gate. Since 1928, this ceremony is performed every day by the Fire Brigade. The only time it was not performed was during the Second World War when the occupying Germans took exception to it! There were many nations represented-: grand old British soldiers, families, children, a marvellous piper and platoons of soldiers, and, on that particular day, many Canadians commemorating a special remembrance. This was followed by a gala dinner attended by 129 people in the “Kazematten”, originally built by Vauban, Louis XIV’s great architect. The third day was the Optional Tourist Programme when we visited three of the many military cemeteries peppering the countryside around Ieper. The first one was flower-bedecked Essex Farm, Canadian, where the Ypres Salient was barely 18m apart from the German line and the Advanced Dressing Station, where John McCray wrote In Flanders Fields. The second cemetery was German, Langemark, a bleak and austere place, where we were confronted with one mass grave containing 24,917 soldiers; the total cemetery contains 44,304 soldiers. The third cemetery was Tyne Cot, where nearly 12,000 Commonwealth soldiers are buried with some German Prisoners of War. The screen wall commemorates 34,957 missing soldiers. Sobering. The route connecting the cemetery to the Memorial Museum, Passchendaele is known as the Road to Passchendaele. Statues of mourning angels replace the original design of the British Lion. “It is not a place for crowing for victory” is a paraphrase of what the architect Sir Herbert Baker said. A member of our party placed a wooden cross below the wall commemorating her great-uncle. Touchingly, we realised that when 3, 4, 5, 6 tombstones are together “skin to skin” it is because the remainders of the poor soldiers could not be sorted! A most enjoyable, enlightening, sobering weekend ended on the Mont Kemmel, Flanders’ Mountain attended by 87 people. We met some people we knew, and made new acquaintances. (It was Minou’s second visit there, the first time was when she was ten).
The Trinidad Red Cross Label- Ian Jakes: I have written a Study Paper on the Trinidad Red Cross label containing 54 pages and published by British West Indies Study Circle. The book is available from David Druett, I Brewerton St., Knaresborough, HG5 8AZ, Tel. 01423 865962, email pennymeadbooks@hotmail.co.uk. Priced at £12 plus postage at cost and £1 packing. The study paper has been produced to mark the centenary of the issue in 1914 of the Trinidad Red Cross label and its one day of fame as a postage stamp on 18 September 1914. The book commences with a brief background to all of the Red Cross labels, explains how the six types of label can be identified and which labels were used as postage stamps. The book describes the attempts by Dr. Arthur Reid to have the label recognised as a postage stamp. Scott Stamp & Coin Co. of USA included the label in Scott’s Catalogue in 1915, but Stanley Gibbons were not persuaded to do so until 1974. There is an attempt, with the aid of Hugh Jefferies, catalogue editor of Stanley Gibbons, to answer the question ‘when does a label become a postage stamp?’ There is a chapter showing authorised use of the label on mail other than as a postage stamp. The study paper analyses attempts by philatelists to obtain a used Trinidad Red Cross label. All are forgeries or fake, save for these labels affixed to charity appeal envelopes posted by the Trinidad Red Cross Society on 18 September 1914. I think that you and most of the Society will find my book to be a fascinating read.
David Shipstone recently visited Wittenberg in Germany and spotted the ‘post office’ of the City-Brief Kurier – see photo below. This is a privately run letter and parcel service covering the central area of Germany. It has operated since 1999 and they have more than 3,000 satisfied customers (their words!). David had hoped to send a letter to himself at his hotel’s address using the City-Brief Kurier service, with the intention of then passing it on to me for my collection. Unfortunately, his visit was at the wrong end of the week and the office was closed; he was leaving soon after. That’s sod’s law for you, but the thought was there!
MISCELLANY
A sad farewell to David Ball, who died at the Queen’s Medical Centre on 2 June. David, a collector of bird and railway stamps and those of Belgium and Luxembourg, had been a member of our Society since 2005 and before his illness, he rarely missed a meeting. He was also one of the founder members of the Greater Nottingham Co-operative Philatelic Society, where he was chairman for a number of years He was also a railway enthusiast, tended an allotment and, in his younger days, enjoyed playing and refereeing hockey. His funeral, attended by around 70 mourners including members of both local philatelic societies, took place at Wilford Hill on 18 June. He will be sadly missed.
The Tuck Memorial Award for visiting speakers was won by Ed Hitchings for his display on UK Revenues. Second was Frank Walton .
Results of the Society Competition: there were seven entries in total. Traditional (1 entry): The Official Overprints of QV Stamps-Dennis Boot; Postal History (3 entries): Indian Expeditionary Force A- Mike Siverns; There was no entry in the thematic class. Aerophilately (this year only as a separate class; 1 entry): Zeppelin Airmails- Doug Stubbings. Huston Open Class: (2 entries): Postal Stationery of Copenhagen- Sandra Poole.
Strange Happenings- Alan Squires and Sandra Poole.
It started normally enough- I received a ‘For Sale’ article for the newsletter- well, not that normally; in fact, it was the first I’d ever received. It was topical, however, so I was pleased to receive it:
‘For sale- British Guiana, 1 cent black on magenta, thought to be 1856ish, scarce. Only one left, so first come, first served. Viewing not essential, but possible in any dark venue of my choice,. Delivery to anywhere in the world, but cash only, as I haven’t got a PayPal account. Offers from genuine stamp collectors only, no time wasters please Phil A.Telli, care of Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink, know what I Mean, Stamp Centre. PS. Genuine reason for sale’
What was strange was it appeared to come from Alan’s computer, and that couldn’t possibly be, could it? Then Alan received the following from mine:
Hi Nudge,Nudge, Wink,Wink, I have just hacked into Sandy’s computer-it is SO old, it was a doddle. I was overjoyed to read your ‘For Sale’ item- I have always wanted that famous British Guiana stamp and have no problem in offering
£1,000,000 for it- cheap at half the price. All freshly minted notes, by the way. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Jean de SPERATI.
P.S. Madame Joseph and the Spiro brothers will vouch for my integrity. Back came a reply that appeared again to be from Alan’s computer,although he is mystified how that could be: Brilliant, your offer is accepted; it’s the best I have had so far. My bank is the Central Bank of Nigeria, so if you send me your bank details… Nudge
Obviously, for some reason unknown to us, that particular sale did not go through, as the unique 1 cent British Guiana of 1856 was sold at Sotheby’s on 17 June for $9,480,000, including 20% commission. Unless, of course, it was not unique!
Website Worth Viewing- Editor
In the winter 2009-10 issue of the Newsletter, David Ball wrote an article entitled ‘Do you need to buy a new stamp catalogue?’. In this, he brought to members’ attention, a website that lists new issues of various countries. As we have had several new members since then and I have found it useful myself, I am repeating his instructions on how to get to it: Type in ‘All registered stamps issued by (country of your choice) in (year of your choice) and click on search’. (last year should come up; current year won’t. Don’t be put off if it says last year is unavailable; just ignore) ‘You will get page 1 with the coloured stamps of that country which you can print off.. You can then click on all the other page numbers as you wish.’ Whilst writing this, I checked France, 2013- it came up with 28 pages, 10 to a page. What David didn’t mention is that you can enter a theme, such as ‘bridges’, plus chosen year, and stamps from different countries on that theme will appear. Brilliant.
Another website you might find useful www.stampshows or just Google ‘Stamp Yellow Pages Directory’. This is a website with a lot of good intentions. It came to my attention in 2006, and a lot of the pages are no longer available, although others may be bang up to date. One link in the ‘Back of the Book’ category takes you to a ‘malicious website’. So this recommendation comes with a lot of reservations. I haven’t gone to every site in the 62 categories, but I did find one or two good articles in ‘censored mail’, and the ‘local posts’ category is excellent. There is a lot of useful information on this website-. you just have to separate the wheat from the chaff!..
Sorry to see you go: Steve Speak has, after one false start, sold his house and will now be leaving Nottingham to start a new life in Cheshire. It’s a sad loss for our Society- Steve has been secretary, president, treasurer and general committee member. We wish him all the best and hope he will still keep in touch, perhaps popping over for the odd meeting?
Musings- Allen Wood: Only occasionally, we have a display which can be described as mediocre. In recent months, there have been a number of outstanding displays. These have had a wealth of material we are unlikely to see again. Am I the only member to have felt overwhelmed and, as a result, to have had to skip some sheets in order to get somewhere into the final frame. Solutions? Are we just overly polite and have no wish to rock the boat? A number of members will know the visitor well and it’s probably why they are exhibiting here. We do not need 180 sheets or to feel that anything less is a poor show. Any comments, please, to the editor.
Alfreton P.S. is 70 this year, having been founded as the Codnor Stamp Club by the Rev Lupton and 8 others at the Cross Church in 1944. They moved several times and the name was changed to the Alfreton PS. Our visit to them took place on 19 September 2014 at the Pentrich Village Hall.
DISCLAIMER: Whilst every care is taken in the production of this newsletter, neither the editor or the Society officers can accept any liability for views, opinions or unintentional publication errors that might occur.
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