Yesterday it felt very much as if we were nearly in spring, a glorious weekend, but today the sun has not yet broken through, so it remained cold for my trip to the post office.
No March slogans yet of course but February ended with the Action for Children default, so I thought I would show it here as the first, to mention that this is used when there are no other campaigns by Royal Mail. This example from Cornwall Mail Centre:
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| 1, Action for Children, mental health charity, slogan postmark. |
UPDATE 4 MARCH: As anticipated in today's post about coloured postboxes, we do have a slogan for World Book Day (see below). KD doesn't know where it was posted, nor the date but I suspect it was earlier this week. Let's hope we can get some more!
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| 2. World Book Day, a poor slogan! |
Later update: A better copy has come from MM, who shows us the Croydon Mail Centre version dates 03-03-2021,
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| World Book Day, Croydon MC 03-03-2021 |
UPDATE 8 March 2021: as expected we have a new postmark this year for International Women's Day, and a fine example from Lancashire and South Lakes 05/03/2021 (early because 8th is a Monday).
International
Women's Day
8 March 2021
#IWD2021
#ChooseToChallenge
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| 4. International Woman's Day 2021 slogan postmark, on forged 1st Large stamp. |
A further example from DP in the other format, today, from Glasgow 05-03-2021
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| International Woman's Day 2021 slogan postmark Glasgow Mail Centre |
UPDATE 9 March 2021: March is proving to be as busy as February with yet another slogan to report today. Thanks to various people for images of varying quality!
BRITISH
SCIENCE
WEEK
5-16 March 2021
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| 5. British Science Week slogan, Sheffield Mail Centre 08/03/2021 |
The above should have the Royal Mail logo at the left; it wasn't cropped in scanning and it's odd that this element wasn't included. Here's the full thing from Bristol, and the other layout from Swindon Mail Centres.
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| Bristol Science Week slogan, Bristol Mail Centre 08/03/2021 |
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| British Science Week slogan, Swindon Mail Centre 09-03-2021 |
UPDATE 14 March, appropriately, Mothering Sunday. Thanks to KD for this example from Lancashire and South Lakes Mail Centre, again with no 'Delivered by' to the left of the data block.
| Remember Mother's Day 14 March 2021 |
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| 6. Mother's Day slogan postmark Lancashire and South Lakes 12/03/2021 |
UPDATE 15 March: Tomorrow is Young Carer's Action Day and Royal Mail have marked this with yet another slogan postmark, although we must hope that at least some of them reproduced better than this if they really wanted to get the message across. Thanks to MM - somebody got a better one than this from Manchester Mail Centre 13/03/2021?
Young Carers
Action Day
16 March 2021
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| 7. Young Carers Action Day slogan postmark Manchester 13/03/2021 (not Merseyside) |
UPDATE 17 March. A further example from Edinburgh Mail Centre dated 15-03-2021 thanks to RW:
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| Young Carers Action Day slogan postmark Edinburgh 15-03-2021 |
Also 17 March: Every 10 years the government holds a census to obtain facts about the population and its housing, religious beliefes, etc, the data being turned into statistics which aid infrastructure planning etc. This year the census continues in England, Wales & Northern Ireland, although it has been postponed for one year in Scotland.
Normally the forms are hand-delivered and collected by 'enumerators' who will, if required, run through the answers with the householder and assist in completion. Having done it a couple of times, in 1971 and probably 1991, I can say that it is a thankless task finding people at home (less of a problem this year) and persuading them that, yes, it is a legal requirement that they provide answers.
This year Census Day is Sunday 21 March, and Royal Mail is running a slogan to remind us. I suspect this slogan is not being used on mail to Scotland, although I would like confirmation of that.
Two people have sent examples from IMP machines, the one at Preston being complete and the one at Sheffield missing the Royal Mail logo, as several have of late. Thanks to JE & KD.
census2021
England, Wales &
Northern Ireland
21 March
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| 8. Census2021 slogan Lancashire and South Lakes MC (Preston) 16/03/2021 |
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| Census2021 slogan Sheffield Mail Centre 16/03/2021 |
UPDATE 22 March. Now that we've all completed out online census forms (you have, haven't you) it's time for Royal Mail to remind us that our postmen may be getting up in the dark next week as it's time to turn the clocks on. Thanks for DP for sending this one from Gatwick Mail Centre dated 20/03/2021.
Don't forget!
Clocks go forward:
Sunday
28 March 2021
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| Clocks go Forward Sunday, slogan postmark, Gatwick Mail Centre |
Will this be the last one for March?
UPDATE 26 MARCH: So the answer is no, although Exeter Mail Centre has, as so often, produced something that required detective work. The date looks more like 26 (today) than the more logical 25 or 24th).
I don't know what the words on the slogan are but I do know that it marks the 150th Anniversary of the world's first international rugby match and also the first international football match. The match was played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh. Scotland won the match, scoring two tries and a goal to England's single try. (Wikipedia).
We now know that it reads
150 years of
international rugby
England v Scotland
27 March 1871.
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| England v Scotland rugby slogan postmark used Exeter Mail Centre 26-03-2021 |
UPDATE 29 March: It seems very hard to find good examples of the Rugby slogan and that may make it one of the most difficult to collect as it seems it was in use for one day only.
We received one from Swindon, and DP sent the other format from Lancashire and South Lakes, both dated 26/03/2021 (Swindon 26-03-2021).
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| Same International Rugby slogan, Swindon in same layout, and Lancashire and South Lakes in alternative layout. |
Possibly the last slogan for this month marks the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall. Thanks to DP for this example from Manchester Mail Centre dated 27/03/2021 which is, as usual, difficult to read and rivalling Exeter.
150th anniversary
of the
Royal Albert Hall
Opening
29 March 1871
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| Slogan postmark marking the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 March 1871. |
UPDATE 31 March: I swear Royal Mail engineering are doing this to try to catch us out. I had a day in the garden yesterday due to unseasonably good and hot weather, and a flood of reports from readers means we have two more updates today. One of these is for a 'week', but was replaced the following day so it is still possible that we will have another one in use today, to report tomorrow before we close the books on March!
First we have World Autism Awareness Week used on 29 March at Tyneside NE/SR Mail Centre (thanks MM), also one of our own from Greenford/Windsor MS, North & West Yorkshire (RW), SE Anglia (JG) and the other format at South Midlands Mail Centre (from MC).
World Autism
Awareness Week
29/03 - 04/04/2021
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| World Autism Awareness Week slogan postmark used 29/3/2021 |
This was quickly replaced by a Happy Easter message from the late Cardinal Basil Hume, seen so far on this example from Jubilee MC dated 30-03-2021 from BM.
"The great gift of
Easter is hope" -
Basil Hume
Happy Easter!
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| Happy Easter, Basil Hume quote, slogan postmark used 30/3/2021 |
(Reserved space for postmark used on 31 March!)
Other postmarks
This would have been a slogan from the Bristol (BA, BS, GL, TA) Mail Centre but I suppose ink-jet just doesn't work on plastic mailing envelopes! Even the Bradford Road self-inking-datestamp (SID) doesn't look as if it would take much to rub off!
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| Ink-jet postmark on plastic mailing envelope. |
But can anybody guess where this postmark is from - and would your suggestion have been any different if I hadn't told you that the Bristol Mail Centre was also involved?
This - semi-anonymous postmarks - happens more and more as branches are closed and relocated as the three shown here demonstrate. "Where's the Post Office?", "In the High Street." This branch actually has three SIDs and is quite a large branch - but where is it? (Any guesses on this one - I do know the answer.)
UPDATE 4 MARCH. As I said, I knew that this was from Bangor Co Down, Northern Ireland, but some doubt was cast by the fact that the post office is in Main Street not High Street - but there is one in High Street, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. Fortunately PA has written to explain:
Your High Street SIDs are from Bangor, NI, but not from the chief office which is in Main Street. They are from High Street, Bangor which was a MAIN from 29.11.14 until 06.08.16
So there we have it!
Unusual Red Packet. Christmas mail included this packet handstamp on a small square envelope from Norwich. The city name is in lower case, the postcode of Norwich mail centre is at the foot, and the single-line date is in DEC 20, maybe 2020. I haven't seen one in red before.
As usual, this is the place for you to record slogan and other interesting postmarks for other collectors and for long-term recording by the British Postmark Society.
Re: the rugby slogan, I have examples from Exeter on the 24, 25 and 26 March
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I wonder when the 'Clocks' finished. I would have expected that to run for a few days leading up to the weekend.
DeleteI have clocks from Bristol, Chester and Exeter dated 24th
DeleteThe Exeter versions are three lines whilst Bristol & Chester are 4