REPORT OF THE SOMERSET & DORSET POSTAL HISTORY GROUP MEETING AT HORNSBURY MILL, CHARD
ON SUNDAY 23rd OCTOBER 2017
After a welcome coffee and cookie [or two], the secretary of the group, Bill Pipe welcomed 18 members and guests to Hornsbury Mill for the Autumn meeting of the group.
Apologies were received from Peter Basterfield, David & Mary Eastman, Keith Brown, John Harding, Dave Rollason, Brian Purcell, Graham Mark and Nigel Bourlase-Hendry.
The dates for the 2018 meetings were announced as being the 18th March & 21st October 2018.
Bill Pipe opened the days displays by showing 90 sheets from his Weymouth collection, which included ship letters, a letter from the Commonwealth Period to Bristol; naval mail, concave cancels, too late; paid marks of the 1810’s; numeral and duplex cancels, parcel post labels, early traveller marks; both framed and unframed, WWI marks as used by the Australian & New Zealand troops stationed in Weymouth; WWII D-Day censorship items, postage dues, instructionals and other interesting items.
On completion of viewing the Weymouth display, Bill went on to show some items from his Dorchester collection, including two-line and single line marks, paid marks, Wessex cancels; registered mail, squared circles, rubber & skeleton cancels as well as more modern items from the returned letter branch, mail eaten by snails and so on.
Before and after lunch, Nick Bridgwater showed a lovely selection of items from his Bath collection, opening with some London Gazettes from the 1680’s with postal information etc. His opening postal marking was a s/line mark of 1706; followed by the different mileage marks, penny post cancels and the unique oval framed Unpaid Penny Post mark of 1811. Also on show were a 1728 Royal Warrant to “Ride the Post” and a lovely selection of mail from the Bath stamp dealer, Alfred Smith. Nick closed by showing a number of coaching inn receipts and adverts from the Bath area, serving destinations such as London, Bristol and all places in between and beyond.
Following lunch, Bill showed some recent acquisitions, starting with the earliest known Dorset postal making, the 1707 “SHERBOURN” mark on an entire to Southwark which also had a very good mark of the Southwark dotted heart cancel as a receiver on the Monday morning; a 1772 SHER/BORNE; the first type mileage of 1785; examples of the 4d post and “short” letter rate of 2d in the same 4d period addressed locally; a June 1840 1d black entire and items from Portland including the scarce “Rainbow Bazaar” cancel of 1911.
Up next was Nick again, this time with a nice Mulready letter sheet from the Bristol Stamp Office with the rather deflating message that of three Sovereigns submitted for deposit, the bank only rated them as being worth £2:15:4d due to the “shaving” off of some of the gold!!
Graham Warren followed with some lovely examples of the Undated Circle cancels from Somerset villages including Wedmore, Worle; Shepton Beauchamp; Martock, Aller; Monkton; Henlade; Broomfield and others.
Our man of many surprises, John Forbes-Nixon showed mail re-routed or unable to follow the traditional routes to the east because of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He also showed two Ballon Monte covers from the famous “Ville d’Orleans” flight; one thrown into the water to allow the balloon to gain height and one from the same voyage which ended up in Norway. He finished by showing us mail into Paris during the siege which travelled in a 10-inch diameter zinc container up the river into Paris.
Roger Martin came up trumps with some modern prison mail with reference to “Rule 39” which is a rule to allow a remand or convicted prisoner secure & confidential access to a solicitor or lawyer. He also showed a strip of 6 x 1d reds on a cover containing race cards for 1875 and some of his beloved modern office mail-the postal history of not only now, but of the future.
Allen Cotton then showed us some Wells postal history including a 1786 Wells S 123 mileage mark; a Wells Mulready; sub-office marks, machine and d/ring cancels.
Claire Scott made her painful way to the front after an earlier, particularly nasty fall to show items relating to the Poor Laws. Under the 1601 Act for the Relief of the Poor, responsibility for the caring of the poor fell to the parishes. To raise money, they taxed home owners [nothing new there then!] to build asylums, work houses and “training” centres. Claire told us the legal definitions of being a Lunatic, an Idiot & an Imbecile [I wavered along the lines that I was probably just an Idiot]
John Scott showed some great examples of novelty postcards, most with labels attached to find the address, and most sent through the postal system in the early 20th century. He also showed fine quality pictorial writing papers & letter sheets from various places both local and further afield.
Mike Tombs showed four covers; one from 1858 with the correct 1d rate paid in stamps, but with the addition of six or seven other, used 1d & ½d stamps affixed after the event. He also showed two lovely entires with a nice pair of the 6d embossed issue and the other with the 1/- embossed cancelled in London. The problem here, is?? Some prat has obliterated the addresses, making them a complete nonentity as far as postal historians are concerned.
John showed us the modern version of “stamps” in the Horizon labels, starting off with the black on white printings, the gold labels and finally on to the new digitally scanned labels. All sorts of codes were on show for as many categories of mail as you could possibly think of including Forces Rates etc.
On completion, Bill thanked various members for their contributions to the meeting and to those who had displayed material to us all.
Date of next meetings were confirmed as being 18th March & 21st October 2018 .
Bill Pipe
24th October 2017 at Lytchett Minster