Somerset & Bristol Postal History

Here are a few Perfins, starting with some from Bristol.  The first is from John Lysaght Ltd, an iron and steel company in 1920.  [A perfin is a postage stamp perforated with the initials or insignia of an organization to prevent misuse.]

Great Western Railway (GWR) were prolific users of Perfins, this one is from 1927.

Colthurst & Harding Ltd was a paint manufacturing company.  The windowed commercial envelope below was posted in 1935.

Bristol Corporation (BC) was probably the largest user of perfins in Bristol, the pieces below were receipts bearing a perfinned stamp in 1952.

Moving into Somerset, the commercial postcard below from Langport in 1903 has a "K&S / L" perfin from Kelway & Son Ltd.

The commercial envelope below is from 1899 with an "ABB" perfin from the Anglo-Bavarian Brewery.  The firm suffered a decline during WWI because of their apparent German name.

Small & Sons in Taunton sent out this bill in 1946.

Here are a selection of perfins used at Bristol, starting with a GWR one used in 1909.  The Great Western Railway was a prolific user of perfins.  Perfins were used to stop stamps being misused or sold back to a post office for gain.

Baker, Baker & Co. were wholesale and retail drapers.  The example below is from 1912.

Robbins were the Imperial Saw Mills in Cumberland Road.  The example below is from 1916.

The envelope below is from the Alliance Assurance Co. in 1922.

The commercial envelope below was sent in 1934 by John Lysaght ltd.

The envelopes below were from Elders & Fyffes, in 1949 and 1951.

The envelope below has a "WILLS" perfin from W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1979.

Here are a couple of Parcel Post items from Bristol, starting with two parcel tags used by Hudden & Co., a tobacco company, in 1902 to go to Hamburg.  The stamps are cancelled with a "BRISTOL" undated roller cancel.

This second page shows part of a parcel wrapper, sent registered from Bristol to Bude with a franking of 1/7d.  One cannot tell how much of the franking is for the Parcel post and how much for the Registration fee.  The wrapper is franked with six GVI 3d stamps with "JFT / B" perfins.

The envelope shown below has a KEVII 1d stamp with a "J.T.D" perfin, sent from Yeovil to Compton Pauncefoot.  The perfin was used by John Trevor Davies, a solicitor in Yeovil.  Perfins were used to prevent theft as the Post Office would not cash a stamp with perfins in (unlike normal stamps which could be exchanged for cash).

Somewhat later, here is another Yeovil perfin, this time a "R T / G" perfin sent within Yeovil in 1961.  The perfin was used by the Road Transport & General insurance company.

Perfins were used by companies to prevent pilferage of their postage stamps - it used to be possible to exchange postage stamps for cash at a Post Office.  Below is an example of the "W/G" perfin, used by the Western Gazette Co. Ltd, Yeovil on a windowed commercial cover in October 1941.