Cancellation query

British postmarks of all kinds and eras.
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Robinr
Posts: 155
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:00 pm

Cancellation query

Post by Robinr »

Image

Dear All,

I have a very interesting block of eight KE8 stamps used, presumably on a bulky letter or package. The cancellation has the date: 1. (blank) PM/16 FE/37 inside the inner circle, while round it, within the outer circle is: ABBEY.WOOD.S.O.SE2 with a 3 blocked solid on either side.

It is the S.O. that has me puzzled, indeed it might be 5.D. or similar as it is very hard to decipher.

Can somebody help, please?

Incidentally, I reduced the blue in Photoshop to help enhance the black (legibility) of the cancellation. The stamps are actually a good rich blue!

Aside from the postmark, the block is scattered with white spots, the un-inked paper showing through because some scatter of grains or round specks must have been on the roll on the web, that came off when the block was soaked to come off the peice it was adhered to.

Best wishes,

Robin R.
Caesley
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Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:00 pm

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Post by Caesley »

The cancel is a Circular Combined cancel. There were four (4) Post Offices in Abbey Wood S.E.2. The S.O. 'Sorting office' refers to the Main Abbey Wood office. The other three (3) were at Bostall Lane, Bostall Hill and Wickham Lane.
Robinr
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Post by Robinr »

Brilliant!

Many thanks and good luck!

Robin
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mozzerb
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Post by mozzerb »

"S.O." was (and is) a standard and frequently seen abbreviation for "Sorting Office".
Regards
Maurice Buxton
Robinr
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Post by Robinr »

Many thanks to both of you! Greatly appreciated! Robin
Robinr
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Post by Robinr »

Hi Caesley,

If this is fun for you - here's another...

Double circle, 1936.

The upper name is clear but unfinished: HEPPLEF

And the lower part is perfect as MORPETH NORTH.

I guessed the Hepplef... might be Heppleford, but Google only gave me a lot of stuff about an aristocrat in a novel. Here in Caracas, I have no atlas of England... Is there, or was there a post office named Heppleford? Or is it another name?

Thanks a ton, cheers, Robin
Caesley
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Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:00 pm

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Post by Caesley »

I have looked at a map and there is a village called HEPPLE about 14 miles NW of Morpeth. If you put HEPPLE Northumberland into Google it will come up with the correct information.
I cannot explain where the 'F' fits.
Edward.
Robinr
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Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:00 pm

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Post by Robinr »

Brilliant! Thanks a ton!

We'll be in England next month and I'll buy a map of some kind to help me with exactly this kind of thing.

As a matter of interest - and please only trouble to reply if the answer is yes - have many villages and towns changed names in the last 75 years or so?

When we get back to England and manage to see more then the motorways connecting airports and places where the kids live, the changes in the cities is dramatic, but rural England seems to have changed little.

Cheers, Robin
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Tony
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Location: Norfolk

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Post by Tony »

Regarding semi-legible cancellations, i have found
that creating a 'negative' image often assists, as white on black can be clearer.

HTH

Tony
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