Following on from this thread
https://goscf.com/t/61682 I thought it might be helpful to provide our members with a bit of help in starting out on this interesting, but large and complicated area.
By 1858 ten district offices had been established in London to facilitate the more efficient sorting and delivery of the ever increasing volume of mail. By 1890 countless handstamps of various types had seen service, the volume of which at first glance can look quite overwhelming.
Parmenter's work "The Barred Numeral Cancellations Of London" is a wonderful publication and is available for download (see my link in the above thread) but some of the introductory pages are missing.
Parmenter's earlier works are available at the same site. Our member chipg provided a link to Westley's 1950 book (again, see above thread) which I converted online to a PDF file some time ago.
To cover the ten district offices and get a basic understanding of what this subject is about, download Parmenter's "District and Branch Office Cancellations from 1856 - Intro, E, N, NE, NW, S, SE" and print out the Introduction (pages Jiii to Jxi; ie: pages 3 to 11 of the PDF file).
From "The Barred Numeral Cancellations Of London" print out the introductory pages xii - xxii & xxvii - xxxiv. These pages will provide an excellent introduction to 8 of the 10 district offices. Note that pages xxiii - xxvi are NOT in the PDF file. The two missing offices are the Western and South Western Districts.
From Westley's book, print pages 78-79, 89, 92-94, 122-125, 148-155 and 157-158. Note these are the page numbers from the book.
You will now have a concise introduction to this field, covering all ten of the district offices and their development over the following decades
Posted 04/25/2018 04:43 am
