Somerset & Bristol Postal History

 Here are a miscellany of marks on green Post Office receipts from the 1970s, from Croscombe, Easton (Wells), Meare, Mells, Walton, Wedmore, Westbury-sib-Mendip, Westhay and Windmill Hill (Glastonbury).  

Modern postmarks from village or Town sub-offices are difficult to find as there are few occasions when a local post office will cancel or handstamp things.

The two postcards below were send from Mells, near Frome, in 1912-3 and have "MELLS" single ring cancels.

Mere in Wiltshire came under towns in Somerset  (Wincanton and Bath) from 1842 until 1910 when it became a post town, coming back under Warminster in 1940.  The postcard below is from 1909 from just before it became a post town.

The postcards below from Merriott are from 1905 and 1910.  Merriott became an independant sub-office in 1900 but the cancel did change until after 1905 - the first cancel is a "MERRIOTT" single ring, the second is a "MERRIOTT S.O. / SOMERSET" ('Dulwich') double circle double-arc cancel.

The cancel below from 1963 is also a 'Dulwich' cancel but by then is "MERRIOTT / SOMERSET" as the "S.O." sub-office terminology had ben dropped.  The second cover below has a commercial commemorative cancel from 1988 for Merriott Moldings Limited.