Local Handstamps for Windmills and Watermills stamp issue

Following the use of local handstamps for the Ancient Britain stamp issue Royal Mail is making a similar arrangement for mail posted close to the mills featured on the Windmills and Watermills stamps issued today.

Stamps on all mail - philatelic and non-philatelic - posted in these boxes will be cancelled with a special handstamp located at:

Nutley windmill – box TN22 32 Highfield, on Crowborough Road near the junction with Ashdown View
New Abbey - the box at 4-6 The Square, New Abbey Dumfries DG2 8BX.

Ballycopeland Windmill - Ashley Park box, near the windmill*
Cheddleton Flint Mill - Outside the old Post Office - 27 Cheadle Road, Cheddleton, ST13 7HN.


Woodchurch windmill – box TN26 43 Shirkoak, on the junction of Redbrook Street and Bethersden Road, Woodchurch
Felin Cochwillan Mill - the box located at the junction of Bro Emrys and Cae Gwgin, LL573UT.

* This box appears to be on a private road inside The Mill Caravan Park, about 3 minutes away from the mill itself.

The handstamps will be used for five days until Saturday 24 June.

If you cannot get to all these locations covers may also be sent to:

Natasha Ayivor, PR Manager Stamps, Royal Mail Group,
100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0HQ

Collectors should clearly indicate which handstamps they want and for which dates.

UPDATE 26 June
Thanks to EM in Gloucester I can show the handstamp used for New Abbey Corn Mill in Scotland.  Seems to have passed through the system with no other postmark and no bar-code (which is as it should be) unlike others which have been reported to have received an ink-jet postmark as well.

Note that the inscription is now the proper black on white instead of being reversed out of the black border.  It's a good illustration too: not much else could have been well done but it could have been a lot worse.


UPDATE 21 June
There has been a range of coverage in the regional media, with many newspapers (websites) mentioning the special local handstamp, but without being specific in any case that I have seen so far. (See Comments for updates and mentions: some interesting coverage in local media.)

The Yorkshire Post displays the worst of modern grammar in modern journalism:

For each of the stamps, Royal Mail will provide a special handstamp on all mail posted in a postbox closest to where the windmill or watermill is located for the next five days.

Presumably after that the mill or postbox will be moved?

UPDATE 25 July
Collectors may be wondering when they will receive their covers with these handstamps.  One who did has sent me this reply from the Royal Mail Press Office (further reinforcing my belief that this was one of the reasons why the Landmark Buildings did not have local handstamps).

As the story appeared in Stamp Magazine, I have been inundated with requests for the postmarks. As such, I am waiting until the end of the month to collect them all, then will have them all sent to the handstamp team to complete in one session.

So we should get them some time in August - not bad for a 20 June stamp issue which some dealers and collectors - already alerted here and in specialist society journals - sent away on the day of issue!

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