A SUMMARY OF THE MEETING HELD ON THE 26th OCTOBER 2014 AT HORNSBURY MILL, CHARD.
Somewhat under twenty members gathered at Hornsbury Mill after enjoying the extra hour in bed when the clocks were moved back. Suitable refreshed by the extra sleep and subsequent coffee & cookies at the mill, we got down to the days business.
Our Secretary, Bill Pipe welcomed everyone & took apologies from those who couldn’t make the meeting. It was particularly pleasing to all that Barbara Osmond came along to the meeting.
Bill was first up and showed an initial ninety sheets of Dorset, starting with a Civil War letter from Lyme Regis, another from the Commonwealth Period and progressed through to the early 18th century with some quite early provincial Town marks from Wareham, Shaftesbury, Dorchester and elsewhere. These were followed by later Town cancels and distinctive marks from Bridport, the two sizes of the “PAID” handstamp used at Dorchester; in both black & red inks. Bill next went on to show a manuscript Shaftesbury Penny Post, hand-struck 4’s from the 4d post period from Sherborne & Dorchester; the unique “Wimborne/Penny Post” mark of 1839; the use of the 1d Inland Revenue fiscal stamps from various locations within Dorset and some nice multiple franking items of mail from Dorchester to Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and many other places.
Next on the agenda were various military camp cancels, Prisoners’ of War mail including a Transport Office mark on an entire to Weymouth from a captive fisherman, held in France mail to and from the Australian & New Zealand Forces stationed at Montevideo Camp, Weymouth during WWI. A selection of Mulready envelopes & wrappers used in Dorset followed; including a 2d used from Dorchester in 1847.
In the second half, Bill showed some of his beloved collection of Dorset Ship Letter marks from Bridport, Lyme, Poole, Weymouth and Swanage. There then followed his display of Dorset Penny Blacks on cover & wrapper, including plate 11 from Poole, Wareham & Wimborne.
After lunch, member Graham Mark displayed the Irish Transitional period from 1916 to 1925. He showed us the provisional cancels after the destruction of the Dublin GPO at Easter, 1916. Amongst the censored items was a scarce item censored during a week-long period ending on the 30th April, 1916; various items censored by the I.R.A and a cachet “Recovered From Raided Mail” applied by the British authorities before partition.
After Graham came our Journal Editor, Nick Bridgwater who showed us Mail Coach mail, WWI Postage Dues and Redirected mail.
Graham Warren showed us a nice matching pair of Paid & unpaid mail for the SAME DAY during the 4d Post Period; a cover of 1833 with a manuscript “Charged 5d on Taunton”; some local ephemera and two penny blacks on cover with either a “Too Late” handstamp or a scarce Taunton traveller mark.
Our Librarian, Mike Welch showed us a selection of his military mail from WWI with emphasis on the Italian Campaign. Amongst these were items routed through France to Cherbourg before reaching the UK.
John Millener, our exile from Sherborne [by choice], showed us some of his collection of Sherborne postmarks, starting with the distinctive & unique to Sherborne “Post/Office” in a dotted circle. Next up were straight line marks, the distinctive “Too Late” in black; the two versions of the undated double arc “Milbourn Port” and “Milborne Port”; duplexes, squared circles & skeletons.
David Eastman displayed and told us all about a correspondence he has from a British P.O.W interned in Holland. He was captured just 4 days after landing and was interned alongside members of the crew of the British Submarine “H6”. He also showed P.O.W mail from members of the Dorset Regiment and a nice item from the 1890 Penny Postage Jubilee celebrations.
Our Bristol legend, Roger Martin started his display by posing more questions than answers when he put up items from the Receiving House No.14 in the Bristol Penny Post; a re-allocated No.14 to Pensford and using both types of No.14; both old & new! Following this, came Roger’s more up-to-date postal history from companies other than the GPO, who are challenging the monopoly held almost exclusively by the GPO.
Just before tea & more cookies, we fixed the two dates for 2015-these are March 22nd and October 25th 2015.
The two displays will be “The Bristol Penny Post” by Roger Martin and “Scottish, Irish & Welsh Railway Company Perfins” by Bill Pipe. This follows on from a previous display of English Railway Company Perfins shown by Bill at the October 2013 meeting.
Bill Pipe,
Hon. Secretary
31st October, 2014